The Absolute Sword
by AceLegends
Summary: A whole new world, and with it, a whole new life. At least, that was what SAO was supposed to be to the terminally ill Yuuki, but with the start of the Sword Art Online incident, the sentiment began to take on a whole new meaning. Tossed into a world where death lurks around the corner, Yuuki feels...strangely at home. So why, then, does she still feel so out of place?
1. Sword Art Online

So it begins. This story was an idea I had for quite a long time, but never had the time to get around writing. Seeing as I'm free from school at the moment, I decided to give it a go. As mentioned in the description, I will be changing some things about SAO, such as some game mechanics and what the floor bosses are, since I'm not hardcore enough a fan to play the games. Just putting it out there, I wrote chapters 1 and 2 together, originally as one long chapter because I thought there wasn't enough content for two, but it seems I was wrong. Title is subject to change, and I'd appreciate suggestions more representative of what the story is about. Then again, it's not as if these introductory chapters will clue you in on the entire plot, so for now at least the title shall be as it is.

Enjoy!

* * *

The Nervegear.

The latest, most widely-anticipated gaming device ever released, and Yuuki held one in her hands.

Is...is this really alright...?

It was a silver, helmet-shaped object with various wires Yuuki couldn't possibly hope to understand the purpose of sticking out from the back. It was shiny, so much so that Yuuki couldn't help but wonder if Aiko had asked for it to be polished just for the first experience to be all the more amazing. It wasn't all too far fetched, given how her sister had already requested for their names to be etched into the sides of their respective headsets.

 _Well, given what virtual reality means to us, I suppose her enthusiasm is somewhat justified._

Her heart swelled at the thought, and Yuuki suddenly found herself somewhat giddy with elation.

"This...this is real, isn't it?" She giggled. "I'm...really heading for another world."

A world of swords, monsters, and adventure, if what the blurb on the box of her game said was true. But most importantly, she thought, freedom.

The sharp and sudden hum of her phone vibrating snapped Yuuki out of her musings, and she set the Nervegear down on her lap to reach for the device. She didn't have to look at the caller ID to know who it was.

"Hello, onee-chan?"

As expected, Aiko's voice came over the receiver. "Ah, Yuuki! Good thing you picked up... listen, something came up in school, and I'll be back rather late. I'm not entirely sure when we'll be done, but you can go ahead and try the NerveGear first."

Yuuki frowned. "Weren't we supposed to log in for the first time together?"

"Oh, I know you've been looking forward to it, but I might be held back till the evening. Besides, you can go ahead and learn the basics of the game first, and then you can teach me when I come back."

"You mean if you come back," Yuuki pouted.

Aiko giggled in response. "There's always tomorrow, Yuuki. At any rate, I'll try my best to get everything done so I can get home in time for dinner, at least. That should still give us an hour or so to play, so all the more you should go ahead and familiarise yourself with the basics, lest we end up fumbling around for our precious hours before bedtime. In any ca- oh, it looks like I'll have to go now. Enjoy yourself Yuuki-chan! Bye!"

And just like that, she hung up, Yuuki unable to get a word in edgewise. She sighed, putting her phone aside before turning her attention once again to the silver headset sat upon her lap. Well...while it wasn't ideal, she did suppose Aiko was right in saying it'd be best if she got the basic controls down first, so that they could maximise their playtime later. The option of waiting for tomorrow so that they could log in at the same time was always there, but to receive both a console and a game to go with it and not get to try it out on the day itself was...rather disappointing. I suppose logging in on my own first would be the better option...Mou, why did something have to come up at the last minute?

She tried for a disappointed, or at least resigned sigh, but found herself unable on account of the wide smile on her face. Not getting to log in with Aiko was a bit of a letdown, but this meant she didn't have to wait any longer- she could log into this brand new world right now, and the sudden development she had just been made aware of did nothing to dampen her mood nor anticipation. Gingerly, she unplugged her phone's charger, and replaced it with the plug connected to the NerveGear.

 _Thisisitthisisitthisisitthisisit!_ She nearly squealed as she put the headset on. Lying down on her bed, she made sure to get into a comfortable position before taking a deep breath to calm her nerves. A green battery bar appeared at the corner of her vision as the HUD flickered to life, and Yuuki's deep breaths were for naught. Voice trembling with excitement, two words left Konno Yuuki's lips.

"Link start!"

* * *

She really didn't know what she expected when she opened her eyes- maybe it'd be like those movies where everyone's avatar was CGI, and it'd take some time to get used to. Or maybe the whole place would look like it came straight out of an anime, with bright colours and backgrounds in every direction.

She hadn't expected...this.

As soon as she opened her eyes, she almost thought she had been transported into a tourist spot in another country; because what greeted her were medieval houses and shops lining the sides of the street, a large fountain spewing crystal-clear water into a basin, where a few birds sat, drinking.

And it all looked so _real_.

Yuuki looked around in awe as people milled about in the streets, each and every one indistinguishable from those she saw back in the real world, save for the attire.

"No way..." Yuuki whispered, before she felt a tap on her shoulder.

With an 'eep', Yuuki turned around to face a young man dressed in a tunic, with what seemed to be a light leather breastplate over it.

"Hello, Yuuki, and welcome to SAO," the man said with a smile. "Is your avatar as inputted in the customisation screen?"

It took her a moment to realise this very real sounding man was actually an NPC, and that her body was, indeed, different from what she was used to. Firstly, she was a great deal taller, and her hair now reached past her shoulders, as opposed to the much shorter haircut she was used to. She looked down, and smiled despite the red creeping up her cheeks- it looks like she was now 'bigger' too.

"You can check your full body avatar, by bringing up the status screen. This can be brought up with conscious thought, or, alternatively, swiping downwards with your index finger and thumb in the air, for those who desire a more tangible interface," the NPC supplemented with a polite smile.

Nodding in acknowledgement, Yuuki visualised what she pictured as a status screen- and out of nowhere, a large, seemingly holographic page popped up in front of her, much like the image on a television, just without the TV actually behind it. On the left was a picture of a slender, rather voluptuous woman with her arms slightly out at her sides, and it took Yuuki a second to register that it was her. _Wait till onee-chan gets a load of this!_

To the right of the portrait was a bunch of buttons that she assumed was to help navigate through the menus. There was inventory, friends, party- which was grayed out at the moment- and a number of other things, with settings at the very bottom. Willing the menu close, she found herself once again marvelling at how amazing all this was. New world aside, she could now bring up menus and such with nothing but a thought?

 _I can't wait till onee-chan gets here!_

* * *

Kirito chuckled a bit as his new acquaintance- Klein- was headbutted back onto his ass by a _level one boar_. Granted, Klein lacked the experience he had, and fighting a wild boar was something not many city dwellers likely had the chance to experience, but damn if the sight wasn't funny.

"Argh...this thing's just a pig isn't it? Why is it so goddamn tough?!" The red-clad swordsman complained.

It really isn't, Kirito thought, but suppressed his smirk in favour of a smile. "That's because you aren't used to dodging, and attacking when openings present themselves. You can't just stand in front of a boar and hack away at it like that."

"Hey, I wasn't just standing in front of it! I tried to get behind it, or maybe a little to the side, but the thing turns faster than I can circle around it," Klein retorted, sounding mildly frustrated at how enemies didn't just stand there and take hits.

"Then wait for it to charge, and smack it from behind," Kirito suggested.

"Are you crazy? I'm not just gonna stand in front of it and let it charge at me!"

Kirito decided not to reply, and let it sink in for a moment. To Klein's credit, he caught on fast.

"Alright, so I've been doing it wrong," Klein laughed, accepting that he was still rather new at this. Kirito mentally acknowledged Klein's good nature. "How about you show me how to do it, then? I'm sure I could pick up at least a thing or two from watching."

"There's not much of a need," Kirito replied, unable to hide the smirk tugging at his lips as he raised a hand, and pointed some distance away.

There, a lone figure stood stop a small hill, surrounded by a pack of wild boars.

And amongst them she danced.

A beautiful, deadly dance, the sharp, agile, but ever so graceful movements highlighted by flashes of silver as her blade drew arcs in the air, and through the boars that charged her. The player was a tall, strikingly beautiful woman who exuded an air of elegance and strength, made evident as she backflipped over a charging boar, slashing it once across the back as she sailed over it, before landing a second blow upon its behind, swirling around with the momentum of her swing to engage a second boar before the first was able to burst into polygons. The second one charged, but the woman merely shifted her body to the side before hoping slightly backwards, twirling on her heel as soon as her feet hit the ground as yet another boar charged her from behind; as she twirled she cut its side one, two, three times, before thrusting to the right, stabbing the boar she sidestepped earlier right in the snout, causing it to shatter on her blade.

Kirito's hand twitched, and he found himself fighting this strange urge to challenge this superbly skilled player to a duel. Somewhere deep inside his mind, a part of him felt as if he should have been feeling something else seeing such a beautiful woman dance about under the sunset, and that the fact he didn't feel such feelings was quite a loss for him as a man.

Klein, on the other hand, didn't seem to lack these feelings, if the look in his eyes was anything to go by. He sat there speechless, mouth hanging agape in what Kirito hoped was admiration for this other player's skill. As it was, Kirito sort of knew there was no way the mysterious player dancing atop the hill could possibly look like that in real life; people rarely ever did minor touch-ups to their avatars in VR games like these, and the fact that this game happened to be an MMORPG made it even more unlikely. Most would tend to make their avatars abundant in areas that they lacked in real life. For example, Kirito's own avatar was fairly tall and muscular to make up for his lack of such in his real body; his rather wild and spiky hair, although not on the level of the characters he saw in certain anime, pushed the image of a brave, or at least fairly outgoing character, a vast contrast to his usual hairstyle, which was as simple and subdued as his own personality in real life. If he had to guess, the woman they were watching was likely quite petite in real life, if her absolutely monstrous height was anything to go by; the hair may or may not have been lengthened, but the dark purple shade of it indicated at least some desire to look like an anime character.

"Mmm... If I had to guess, she's probably just about hit puberty..."

"Hey, don't scare me like that! You know I've been ogling her, right?! If she turns out to be a middle school student... I'd probably never be able to forgive myself!" Klein yelled, suddenly on his feet and desperately trying to get Kirito to take his words back. The boar, having detected sudden motion from a player that had been attacking it earlier, perceived his movement as a threat, and promptly headbutted Klein back onto his ass. He landed with an undignified "oof".

Kirito couldn't help but laugh, before drawing his sword as the boar prepared to charge Klein, who had just begun to get up again. Having been focused on its red headed target, the boar took two slashes right to it's flank, squealing as it turned to face Kirito. A swipe across the snout and a dash-cut across its body later, the boar exploded into polygons. Klein stared, speechless.

"You did wear it down beforehand," Kirito explained.

"You've got to be kidding! I did all that work and you take it down in less than 5 seconds? Hell, even if I did manage to wear it down, it means you just stole my kill! My kill that I've been going at for over...however long it's been!" Far from the praise Kirito had been expecting, Klein moved to throttle him, shaking him by his collar in frustration and- to a much greater extent- humiliation. Kirito merely laughed it off, not entirely sure if he had messed up the situation or not.

The commotion had caught some attention, however, and this time it wasn't of the boars'. The woman- or girl, Kirito wagered- from earlier had came towards them, and was observing their little scuffle with wide-eyed amusement. Klein soon noticed too, and hastily let go of Kirito, before bowing so low Kirito was almost sure his torso was 90 degrees to his legs.

"That was a splendid performance over there, ojou-sama! We had been watching you fighting the boars, and are in admiration of your ability! Please, teach me your secrets, master!" Klein said, barely catching a breath in between, even getting on his knees and kowtowing at the last part. The woman before them was suddenly flustered, and moved to help him up.

"No, please, leave him like that. He probably sees it as an honour to be at the feet of someone as beautiful and skilled as you are," Kirito quipped, secretly glad to have such a dramatic and comedic buddy to bounce off of. Kirito wasn't the best of conversationalists, but Klein made missing his cue harder than not noticing the affections of 3-4 different girls.

"O-oh, is that so? Beautiful and skilled, huh...hehe, I suppose I should thank you for your compliment, ah... Klein-san, was it?" The woman said with a smile, and Kirito found himself rather impressed at how quickly she adapted to the situation, given how a random stranger had just prostrated themselves before her. Not everyone is quite as antisocial as you are, Kazuto, Kirito reminded himself.

"Yes, m'lady! I am Klein, a humble level 1 newbie to this game! As such, it would be my greatest honour to be under your tutelage-"

"Alright, that's enough of that," Kirito said, chopping his friend on the head as he once again began his tirade. The woman before them giggled, and Kirito turned to address her.

"My friend's admiration for you aside, miss, I don't believe we've gotten your name. You are...?" Kirito said, gesturing for the woman to answer and desperately hoping he hadn't changed the topic too suddenly.

"My name is Kon- er, Yuuki. I'm actually new to this game as well, so please take good care of me!" answered Yuuki with a bright smile, which Kirito returned till something clicked.

"You're...new to this game? You weren't a beta tester?" Kirito asked, mouth agape.

"Ehehe...well, yeah. This is my first time playing SAO," Yuuki replied, tilting her head and scratching her cheek in a way that made a certain red-haired swordsman who was about to stand up drop right back down onto the ground.

"WAIT, SO YOU'RE COMPLETELY NEW TO THIS TOO?!" said redhead exclaimed, looking up at Yuuki from his position on the ground. Ah, it seems Kirito had gotten him wrong. He was simply wowed by the fact Yuuki was as good as she was despite not having prior experienc-

Wait, no, his nose was bleeding.

 _It seems I was right in my initial analysis..._

"So...you seriously have no combat experience whatsoever?" Kirito asked, once more, just to make absolutely sure the woman before them wasn't a professional bullfighter or something.

"No, I don't," Yuuki said, before red crept up her cheeks as the two men stared at her with wide eyes. "Really, I don't think I'm quite as good as you two seem to think I am! The system seems to assist you in harder movements like flips or dashes, so all I really have going for me is the will to actually give it a try. I'm sure if either of you tried it too, the system would help you perform the same tricks I pulled off!"

To Kirito's infinite pride, he managed to compose himself fairly quickly.

"Newbie or not, Yuuki-san, it is undeniable that you have considerable skill compared to most players at the moment," he said, bowing slightly in a rather gentlemanly fashion.

Yuuki turned away slightly, embarrassed but rather proud at the compliment. "Ah, thanks I gues-"

"As such, Yuuki-san, I have a small request to make," Kirito said, and stepping backwards, he pointed his blade at a rather surprised Yuuki.

"I, being a beta tester, have had a fair bit more experience in this game than others, and haven't really gotten much of a chance to test myself to see if I have gotten rusty since the beta test. If I may be so bold...may I request a duel?" Kirito proclaimed with a smile.

At this, Yuuki and Klein, who had given up on standing and was now sat on the floor, both burst into nearly simultaneous laughter.

Kirito sweatdropped.

"Haha, what the hell, Kirito? You sound just like one of those blood knight type characters in anime! That was great!"

"I'm sorry, Kirito-san, but it's true! Your speech was cool, I'll admit, but it sounded like it came straight from an anime! But that aside-" here Yuuki composed herself, although a ghost of a smile could still be seen tugging at her lips. "I accept your challenge! Now, let us duel till the sun sets!" Yuuki exclaimed, putting a hand on her her blade's hilt as she assumed a combat stance.

She's patronising me with the over-the-top speech, isn't she?

"W-well, the sun has almost set already, hasn't it?" Kirito said with a cough, in what he strongly suspected would be a vain attempt to steer the focus away from his earlier speech.

Contrary to his expectations, though, Yuuki abruptly stood up, abandoning her stance to look around, before her face twisted into an expression of terror at the golden glow of the setting sun. Or, more accurately, the subset of terror known as 'oh crap'.

"Crap, I completely forgot! This world's environment changes in accordance to the real-world clock, doesn't it? Oh god, onee-chan is gonna kill me!" Any pretense of grace and elegance were thrown out the window and off of Aincrad as Yuuki proceeded to panic.

"Sorry, Kirito-san, Klein-san! I really must be going, I was supposed to log off an hour ago! Let's meet again tomorrow!" Yuuki said hurriedly, opening her menu as she did.

Then she stopped.

"Uh... Kirito-san? You were a beta tester, right?"

"Yes, I was. Why?"

"Well...uh...total noob question...but how do I log out?" Yuuki asked with an embarrassed smile. Kirito laughed.

"So you really are a newbie after all...I suppose it can't be helped, so here, I'll open my menu for you to see. The button is right-" and here Kirito stopped too. "That's strange...it should be right under the settings button..."

"Ah, mine isn't there either! Could it be some kind of glitch? It is launch day after all..."

Kirito barely had any time to formulate an answer before the chiming of bells could be heard, and the three of them were surrounded by a particle effect.

"Woah, what's happening, Kirito?!"

"Calm down, it's just a teleportation effect. Maybe the GMs spotted the glitch and are planning to address it."

"W-well, that's great! Now I have an excuse for forgetting to log out! Onee-chan need never kn-"

"-ow."

One moment she had been on the field with Kirito and Klein, and the next, Yuuki found herself in the middle of the town square, in the town of beginnings. Kirito and Klein were with her too, as were what seemed to be thousands upon thousands of other players, most of whom seemed just as confused as she was.

"Huh? Is this some kind of event?"

"Oh, so they're planning to address the logout glitch."

"No, you idiot, they wouldn't teleport everyone just to address a glitch! This has to be some kind of launch day opening ceremony."

"Maybe this is an in-game introduction to Aincrad? I do very much enjoy lore."

"Hey, do you think we'll be getting free stuff?

While the words of the players around her seemed logical enough, Yuuki couldn't help but have a bad feeling about the recent turn of events.

It didn't get much better when the sky turned red.


	2. The Death Game

Red, hexagonal patterns, began to fill the sky, dying the horizon crimson. If Yuuki had to describe it, it was like a bloodied honeycomb encompassing the world.

"H-hey, that's pretty ominous."

"Ooh, that's a cool effect! Sort of like a blood moon or something."

"Damn, they're really pulling all the stops out for launch day..."

"Ah, so it's an event...does this mean they're not going to address the glitch? My pizza's gonna get cold..."

"In the first place, you probably shouldn't have logged on if you were expecting a delivery, Klein-san," Kirito deadpanned.

"H-hold on, don't you think you're all a bit too calm? The sky is turning red! Red!" Yuuki exclaimed incredulously. While an event seemed a sound enough explanation, didn't someone else mention a problem with the logout button too? But, besides that-

 _There's no way mom and dad would let me skip on my medication! In any normal circumstance, they'd have plugged me out by now!_

"Attention players. I welcome you to my world."

A loud, booming voice resonated throughout the town square, and the gathered players' attentions were (rightfully so) drawn back to the crimson sky...which had just started bleeding.

 _Okay, what the fuck?!_

This time, the general populace seemed to share Yuuki's thoughts, as event or not, seeing the thick, ruby liquids drip down from the sky was infinitely disturbing. If Yuuki had to describe it...

Yeah, bloodied honeycomb.

There was a good half of a minute where everyone watched, breathes held in a tense silence, as the blood that dripped from above began to converge, and slowly take shape into something else. Soon, the form of an enormous, robed figure floated above, face obscured by a hood that had no business obscuring it as well as it did.

"My name is Akihiko Kayaba.  
And as of this moment, I am in control of this world."

 _Kayaba? Wasn't that the guy who helped develop the Medicuboid?_

"I'm sure most of you have already noticed an item missing from your main menus - the log out button. Let me assure you, this is not a defect in the game. I repeat, this is not a defect. This is how "Sword Art Online" was designed to be."

There was a moment of silence as the players' processed this information, but after they did the silence was quickly killed in favour of what could only be described as a cacophony of confused squawks.

"H-hold up, it was supposed to be this way?"

"That's not what it was like in the beta!"

"I know I said I could live here instead of the real world, but this is going a bit too far..."

"He's kidding, right?"

Apparently, this had been the exact kind of response Kayaba had been hoping for, because Yuuki was sure she could _hear_ the smirk on his face as he deemed to continue.

"You cannot log yourselves out of SAO, and no one from the outside will be able to shut down or remove the "NerveGear" from your head. If anyone attempts to do so, a transmitter inside the NerveGear will discharge a microwave signal into your skull, destroying your brain and ending your life."

"WHAT?!"

"Pssh, bullshit! That can't be true! Right?"

"Destroying our brains? What the hell?!"

If there had been a clamour before, the players were now in a complete uproar. Some were incredulous, others in complete disbelief or denial.

But by now, everyone was scared.

And thus the hooded man deemed it suitable to continue.

"Despite my warning, the families and friends of some of the players have attempted removing the NerveGear, an unfortunate decision, to say the least. As a result, the game now has two hundred thirteen less players than when it began. They've been deleted from both Aincrad and the real world."

A multitude of holographic screens shimmered to life beside Kayaba, each displaying news reports and the like as evidence to his claim, temporarily silencing the crowd before clamour begun anew, but with a great degree of the shock and confusion from before replaced by pure horror instead.

"As you can see, international media outlets have round-the-clock coverage of everything, including the deaths. At this point, it's safe to assume the likelihood of a NerveGear being removed is minimal at best. I hope this brings you a little comfort as you try to clear the game. It's important to remember the following:

There is no longer any way to revive someone within the game. If your HP drops to zero, your avatar will be deleted from the system... forever. And the NerveGear will simultaneously destroy your brain. There is only one way for a player to escape now - you must clear the game. Right now, you're gathered on Floor One, the lowest level of Aincrad. If you can get through the dungeon and defeat the boss, you may advance to the next floor. Defeat the boss on Floor 100, and you will clear the game."

"If we die in the game…"

"We'll die in real life?"

"S-stop screwing around!"

"We can't clear all 100 floors… that's freaking impossible...even the beta testers never made it that high!"

"Last but not least, I've placed a little present in the item storage of every player. Please have a look."

It wasn't a suggestion, not when the one speaking was a man who could take two hundred and thirteen lives and speak of it as nothing but a statistic. The clamour died down as the players began to realise the robed man before them did not intend to discuss their predicament any further, and one by one, menus began to pop into existence before their respective players. Yuuki herself was no exception.

"A mirror…?"

Suddenly, several players around her began to glow, and with a start Yuuki found her avatar glowing as well.

"Gah! W-what the hell?"

When the light faded and Yuuki found herself able to see again, the things she saw weren't quite the same.

 _Was everything always this big?_

"Yuuki?" came Kirito's voice from behind her, "is that you?"

"Huh?" Yuuki turned, mildly confused, "of course it's...me…?"

She stared.

"Eh…how should I put this, Kirito-san…you're a look a lot plainer than I remembered…"

Kirito grimaced, shrinking into himself a bit."I-it seems the mirror reverted us all into our real-world appearances. I suppose I do look pretty ordinary...it's why I retreat to VR, after all…"

Real-world appearances?

Well, that explained why everything looking bigger. Yuuki was no longer the tall and graceful swordswoman whose feet Klein had been so glad to throw himself down at.

Instead…

Heh, and she called Kirito plain.

A head full of short, black-brownish hair that reached slightly past her ears, ending around her neck, and basically no other notable traits whatsoever. Well, she supposed her short stature was fairly notable compared to most of the players around her, but then again most of them were older than she was. Well, it wasn't as if she particularly disliked how she looked in, so the loss of her avatar wasn't too bad, she supposed. It was just a shame...because this was how her body looked in the real world.

Where she was weak. Frail. Fragile.

But, right here at least, she was no more fragile than the next guy. In fact, she thought, here she might actually be _less_ brittle than many of the others. In fact, some of them had already broken.

"No...no way…"

"Let us out! All we did was pick up your stupid game! We don't bloody deserve this!"

"I-I'm going to...die...away from all my friends and family...no...NO!"

Yuuki shifted uncomfortably. It wasn't as if she didn't understand what they were feeling, because she really did. She felt it too; the shock of the revelation, the fear of death, and the horror at the reality that encroached itself upon the thousands of minds trapped in a Death Game.

But as the screams around her grew shriller, and more desperate, something clicked. And Yuuki understood what she was feeling.

 _I...don't mind this. Whatsoever._

"Right now, you are probably wondering; why? Why would Akihiko Kayaba, developer of Sword Art Online and NerveGear, do this? Ultimately, my goal was a simple one. The reason I created Sword Art Online was to control the fate of a world of my design. As you can see, I have achieved my goal."

Huh. So he wanted to play god, was that it? That was fine. At the very least, it meant that he wasn't specifically out to get them. As long as she could play the game well, this world was still hers to experience...and now, with her life tethered to the game, she supposed she might as well make this world her own.

 _The penalty for in-game death aside...this is what onee-chan wanted for me, wasn't it?_

"This marks the end of the tutorial and the official launch of Sword Art Online. Players, I wish you the best of luck."

The robed man who towered above them then began to melt and dissolve, eventually dissipating and taking the bleeding sky with him. In its place was the night sky, not quite yet black but rather a deep, profound blue. Stars dotted this limitless expanse, like a million hopes and dreams Yuuki had never before seen in the real world. And thus, it was under this beautiful night sky that a blasphemous thought crossed Yuuki's mind, a thought she couldn't quite find it in herself to disagree with despite the many logical and several emotional counter arguments she had to it.

 _This...is all I've ever wanted._

And as the world around her erupted into chaos, Yuuki smiled up at the night sky.

* * *

"Goddammit...bloody thing just had to drag on forever…" Konno Aiko seethed, cursing her school, her club, and Shinji, since the bastard really hadn't been helping out as much as he should have. Short-staffed as they were, looking back Aiko found that it might have been better if she had just coughed a bit and bailed under the pretence of feeling under the weather.

 _And Yuuki-chan was so looking forward to diving with me too! And I'd even gotten our names engraved on the NerveGears and made an event out of this thing…_

Life wasn't fair!

Striding out of the elevator, her rage took a backseat to her surprise at seeing what looked like a whole team of medical staff gathered around the corridor. They were blocking the way to her apartment too, it being at the far end of said corridor. _And the world conspires to keep me from my sister once again._

Then, she saw a familiar face.

There was one, blissful moment when Aiko saw the man, and thought to herself, _oh, I remember him. I wonder what he's doing here._

The moment passed, and the world crumbled.

"-omise, I'll- ack!"

"What happened? Did the AIDs act up? Did she pass out? Why in the world are there so many medics? Just what the hell is going on, Doctor Kurahashi?!"

Kurahashi looked surprised, and a little dazed even, to find himself staring down and straight into the eyes of a fiery 14 year-old girl, who had one hand clasped tightly around his wrist and another grabbing him by his collar. He recovered quick, however, but instead of answering her question he made the mistake of shooting a glance at the her parents.

Aiko didn't let his folly slide.

" _ANSWER ME!"_

"R-right, of course!"

Yuuki's personal doctor had never, at least as far as Aiko had seen, come across as a particularly timid person. But at her shout he was genuinely frightened, and while he didn't seem to fear her he certainly was afraid of _something._

Aiko was sure, but at the same time afraid, that that _something_ was the answer to her question.

Biting his lip and looking like he wanted to be anywhere but there, the doctor eventually found the courage to speak.

"Her medical condition is stable, so no worries about that...the problem at hand is another matter entirely."

"And? What would that problem be?" Aiko frowned, a dangerous edge in her voice.

Kurahashi knew quite well the elder Konno sister's protective streak, and at most times found it extremely endearing, albeit a tad excessive. Now, however, her protectiveness was _not_ something he wanted to face. Or rather, it wasn't the protectiveness he was afraid of- he had had to deliver bad news to protective kin many times before, such was his profession- but the fact that he now had to break the news to a protective _14 year-old_ was a fact he cursed life for forcing him to face.

Even so, he found it in himself to look her in the eye, giving her his due respect in what was undoubtedly going to be a trying time.

"I regret to inform you that Konno Yuuki is now amongst the 100,000 trapped in what has been termed the 'Death Game', Sword Art Online. The creator of the game and it's system, Kayaba Akihiko, has programmed his system to kill any and all players who have their NerveGears forcibly removed, or die in-game. As the players are also unable to log themselves out, medical staff are working around the clock to move all who are caught in the Death Game to proper healthcare facilities, where they will be properly looked after and monitored. Aiko-chan, your parents have agreed to let Yuuki test the Medicuboid. We will be moving Yuuki to a clean room, and Rinko-san herself will modify the NerveGear to fit with the equipment there. Yuuki will be safe there. So, there's….there's no need to worry."

Aiko wasn't sure when she stopped listening, but she caught the gist of it, more or less. Her sister was trapped in a game, a Death Game, where her life would be put on the line. If she played it safe, though, and adjust to living in the artificial world, she'd actually be safer from her disease in the clean room, and live longer as a result. Yuuki had always been bored holed up at home, anyway, and longed for a time where she could prance around outside. If the game did it's reviews any justice, playing it was akin to being in a fancier version of real life. So, in a way, this situation was all Yuuki ever wanted, and all Aiko had ever wanted for Yuuki. After all, she wasn't all weak and frail in the game, and she could explore a whole new world while the AIDs virus in her body lay relatively harmless within the clean room.

This was...better…

The doctor, who had just now been at her mercy, slowly kneeled, and pulled the stunned Aiko into an embrace. It wasn't a warm, comforting one- that would come from her parents later- but rather a firm, resolute one, the kind a soldier would give his children when he promises to come back.

"I promise, Aiko-chan, that I will do everything in my power to ensure Yuuki lives for as long as possible. While it may not be as long as she deserves, I guarantee you that the extending of her lifespan will receive all human effort I can muster."

It wasn't in her parent's arms as it probably should have been, but she didn't really think that it could wait any longer. Ideally, she wished that she wouldn't be held at all, but instead be the one holding her little sister, even if said sister couldn't hold her back.

Konno Aiko collapsed to her knees, and burying her face into the doctor's coat, let out a cry of anguish. The doctor loosened his hold on her, patting her lightly on the back as he whispered words of comfort. Her father, who stood behind Kurahashi at the entrance to their home, looked rather pained, and made to step forward and bring his daughter into his own arms, were it not for his wife, her mother, turning away at the sound of her cries, violent sobs of her own wracking her body as her husband turned to hold her, saying how they shouldn't cry in front of their child.

Strangely though, Aiko registered somewhere in her subconscious as her mind and body was flooded with sorrow, that while her cries had started shortly after the doctor's promise, the tears had begun before even a single word had left the man's lips.

* * *

 **So, what did you think? I'll admit, I was rather unsure as to whether this story would work, since Yuuki here is a bit less cheery than in canon, but characters grow and I intend to write the Yuuki we all know and love one day. Apologies if Kayaba's speech dragged on, because that's the feeling I got while writing it- I'm not all too used to sustaining an atmosphere of horror, but hey, after multiple edits I do hope the final product didn't give you that impression. I'm also bloody proud of that ending segment, and I do plan to have more of such dramatic moments in the story, just not super often. I like to think I excel at dialogue and action, so apologies if the descriptions in this story come across as lackluster.**

 **For anyone who hasn't seen the anime since forever(like me), Rinko is apparently Kayaba's love interest, and the one who submitted his plans for the Medicuboid.**


	3. bEtA teStERs!

Not much progress was made in the following month.

After the fateful announcement, the players of Aincrad had quite understandably been in ill shape to make any sort of headway in the grand quest to complete all hundred floors. The panic had continued well into the night, before most players decided to turn in for the time being, in the vain hopes that they would wake up in their own beds the next morning, the whole trapped in a game thing having been some sort of cruel joke, or a nightmare.

There were others, however, who in their disbelief didn't so much hold on to as frantically grasp for the notion that everything was a farce. Hence, they took this optimistic hope to a whole new level; some went off into the woods in search of hidden doors or whatnot, whilst others straight up jumped off of Aincrad, many seeking to prove that the respawn system was in place, with a few even claiming that in-game death was the proper trigger for a logout.

As far as Yuuki could tell, none of them returned.

Luckily for her, Kirito managed to get ahold of her shortly after the announcement, ushering her with him into a nearby inn before things got too out of hand. He had extended the offer to Klein as well, but the older man had graciously declined, citing worry for a few friends who had logged on with him before leaving to meet up with them. They didn't see him again, but he had made sure to keep in touch, and from the sounds of it his friends weren't among the many who perished that night.

The announcement aside, the presumed deaths of the players who didn't return after that night only served to shake the populace up even more, and the denial, anger and bargaining continued for about a few days before the streets finally quietened down, the players now finding themselves in the valley of grief known as depression. As there seemed to be with most groups of people, however, there were a select few amongst the 100,000 trapped players who accepted their fate, and begun to either find ways to make the best of their predicament, or devote themselves wholeheartedly to the noble cause of completing the game. The efforts of the latter were haphazard at best, however, but over the following weeks the few who set their eyes on the 100th floor grew in number, and eventually there were enough of them in the same place to actually make a coordinated effort.

 _Which brings us to today._

Yuuki sat on the highest step of the amphitheatre, eagerly awaiting the start of the strategy meeting. While not quite as crowded as, say, a school hall during an assembly, there were at least a hundred players gathered around the area, some sitting on steps of the amphitheatre as she was, while others conversed with each other at the bottom. As the amphitheatre had been sort of built into the ground, there were still some who milled about above everyone else on solid ground. In a way, this gathering was a new experience compared to milling about the town square; there, people largely spoke out of necessity, with many communicating in hushed whispers, gazes rarely meeting that of others and smiles rarely reaching their eyes. Of course, that all was to be expected- the ones who had grown comfortable with their new world were largely off killing monsters and living in other cities like Tolbana, the place she was at right now. The only ones left in the Town of Beginnings were those who refused to acknowledge the fact that they were trapped, and weren't about to be rescued; save a few stragglers like herself, of course.

Here, however, the conversation was light and airy, the gathered players eager to converse with slightly less depressed peers. Since the lot of them had responded to summons requesting for the "bravest of adventurers", it thus followed that most of them didn't exactly belong to the group of players who stayed cooped up in the Town of Beginnings.

Judging from their outfits, it seemed most of them had been fairly successful adventuring for the past few weeks, although with this being the first floor, none of their gear looked particularly impressive(although Yuuki thought she caught glimpse of a particularly expensive-looking set of shortswords). As for herself…

"Err, excuse me, miss? Do you happen to have a team yet? If not, we'd be honoured to have you join ours," a man in full plate armour said, standing several steps below her so as to not tower over her with his above-average height. Around him were presumably his teammates, all four of whom had on decent equipment as well as hopeful smiled.

"Sorry, but I've already got a partner, and your party only seems to have space for one," she replied, to the disappointment of the four players behind the plate armour guy. He, on the other hand, wore a helmet with a visor, so she decided to give him the benefit of the doubt as he thanked her for her time, before walking away with his group.

Decked in a full set of the most expensive gear that could be bought from this floor, Yuuki felt she had reason to be proud. Honestly speaking, since most of her equipment was leather and cloth, with the odd metal chestplate or pair of greaves thrown in, she didn't exactly look the part of a "high-level player". Stats-wise however, her gear was of a far better quality as compared to that one guy's plate armour. While it didn't provide quite as much defense, her build was geared towards a high agility playstyle, and as far as light armour went, hers was of the highest quality currently available. Still, though, she did sort of wish her armour, top-class and expensive as it was, looked the part.

Her sword, on the other hand, had an appearance more representative of its worth; a sparkling silver with lines of black zig-zagging across the blade to make a sort of diamond pattern with the areas the lines didn't cover, her Onyx Slasher+5 was a reward for a quest that Yuuki frankly didn't remember the name of; as far as she could recall, it had something to do with wolves. Lots, and _lots_ of wolves.

 _Totally worth it though,_ Yuuki thought with a smirk as she caught someone staring at her weapon in awe. Well, the guy was staring in the general direction of where her weapon was, but it should've been safe to assume that was what he was staring at. As it was, her blade was probably one of the strongest in the game at the moment, given how she had totally lucked out on getting it to +6 while barely any farming for extra materials to increase the upgrade success rate. Possessing such a fine and stylish weapon made her feel like a total pimp, and as she sat all self-satisfied on her step, she decided to let it show, putting her upper arms on the step above her and allowing her lower arms to drop forward, as if putting her arms around a pair of invisible...whatever the people who sat on either side of a rich guy were called.

"Someone looks comfortable."

She didn't have to look to know who it was. "That was an awfully long call," she replied, "Did you and Klein really have that much to catch up on?"

Kirito sighed as he plopped down into the space next to her. "I wish that were the case. I asked him if he was coming, and he said he was in a dungeon, so no." He paused, and Yuuki patiently waited for more.

"No, that's it. That's literally all we talked about."

"Oh. Okay…" Yuuki nodded hesitantly, "and the reason you took so long…?"

"I got ambushed by a bunch of parties looking for another member. One after another. There were at least _six_ of them, and one in particular was _really_ persistent."

"How persistent was that, exactly?"

"Let's just say Klein fighting that boar- after getting knocked on his ass for the hundredth time- has _nothing_ on that guy," Kirito sighed yet again, massaging his temple. Yuuki thought to pester him for a bit more detail, but decided against it. The poor boy looked like he'd suffered enough.

"Well, that's what you get for walking around with the Anneal Blade slung on your back," Yuuki pointed out, nudging him with her elbow, "it probably doesn't help that yours is glowing. Glowing swords are instant signifiers of skill, dedication, and all-around badassery. _Everyone_ wants a guy with a glowing sword."

Kirito groaned, and sort of whimpered a little into his hands. "I should've left the damn thing at +5," he whined. Yuuki found an inordinate amount of pleasure seeing her usually calm, collected partner writhe about in the pain of having a negative value in his 'socialising' stat. Seriously, though, the man was a monster of rational thought who understood even the smallest of intricacies of the combat system and, to some extent, the Cardinal system as a whole. But when it came to _people_?

 _Well, all that expertise had to come at the expense of_ _ **something**_ _, didn't it?_

"May I have the attention of all gathered players," a voice cut into Yuuki's thoughts, and shifting herself into a position more suited to listening(i.e. anything but the one she was currently in), she looked towards the source of the voice.

As some of the crowd settled themselves down on the lower steps, Yuuki's eyes landed on a tall male player with blue hair. Like hers, his armour didn't look like anything special, but to her and, she assumed, the gathered players, it was clear that the player speaking was no slouch in the equipment department either. For one, he somehow managed to get his hands on a shield that _wasn't_ a buckler. As far as she knew, no shop sold those things yet, and there wasn't a blacksmith, NPC or otherwise, who could make one for you on this floor. Heck, fact he had col to spare on cosmetics (there was _no way_ the blue was natural, and the locks of hair that reached past his chin wasn't the most common of hairstyles in the real world) probably spoke something about his farming prowess, if not his questionable fashion sense.

"My name is Diavel, and I am the organiser of this...event. Or, well, a gathering, if you will. As you all are probably aware, the summons requested the bravest, most talented players in SAO. I'd like to have you all know that this was no exaggeration, nor an advertising stunt. Simply put- and I'll cut to the chase here," Diavel stopped to take a breath, "we found the boss room."

Instantly, the "light and airy" atmosphere from before vanished, as Diavel's words sank in. The mood was instantly dampened, and Yuuki felt that she sort of understood why. While it wasn't bad news per se, it definitely brought out a number of conflicting emotions in everyone present; on one hand, the locating of the floor boss was undoubtedly a good thing, since it was their first real hint of progress in clearing the game. Yet, at the same time, it also reminded players of the fact that this was a thing they had to do; fight through a hundred floors, and a hundred floor bosses to clear the game. And when death in-game equated to death in real life, the prospect of a boss raid was absolutely _terrifying_. That this was the first of many didn't help much either; not only did everyone lack experience in raiding floor bosses, but this was the _first_ of a _hundred_. But yet again, was it not the fact that this was their first raid that made this a cause for celebration, a milestone unlike any other?

Such were the thoughts that seemed to whirl through the heads of the gathered players, who were almost brooding in contemplative silence. Sensing the oppressive atmosphere, Diavel quickly continued. "Of course, we do recognise that this might be a rather daunting task for most of you," the blue-haired man said, nodding to the crowd with an understanding smile, "and frankly, I, nor anyone else, shall blame you for finding it so. As such, I would like to make it clear that anyone who feels they are not up to the task can leave at any time. I repeat, those who are afraid or unconfident, you are free to leave, free of judgement. I think we all recognise how tall of an order it is to participate in the first ever boss raid of Aincrad."

A small commotion worked its way through the ranks of those seated on the steps of the amphitheatre, and soon there were players getting off of their seats, quietly leaving the area. While Diavel had said they would be free of judgement- and they were, of course, as no one would blame them for fearing for their lives- those that left were quite obviously rather embarrassed, or guilty even, for leaving their fellow players to take up the task in their stead, and, as far as they knew, to die. Eventually, they cleared out, and the amphitheatre was left with less than half of the players who had shown up.

There were still a sizeable number remaining, however, and looking down from her vantage point at the top of the steps, Yuuki registered that the ones left seemed to be the most well-equipped and determined of the bunch. Sure, there was still an element of apprehension present in many, but on the whole, Yuuki didn't think any of the ones left were likely to change their minds anytime soon. Diavel seemed to notice this too, and after a few more moments to make sure no one else was leaving, continued in a far less grave tone a compared to before. "Despite what might seem like rather discouraging scene, I am quite heartened to see quite this many of you still here. From the looks of things, there should still be more than enough of you to form the full raid group of 48 players. So please, don't mistake what just happened as a loss of manpower. If they had stayed, they wouldn't have been able to enter the boss room with the rest of us anyway. Now then," Diavel stopped to flash the crowd a grin, his face now exuding an eagerness he hadn't displayed before.

"Without further ado, shall we get started?"

* * *

Over the next hour or so, Diavel went over what they knew, as well as their battle plan.

The boss, Illfang the Kobold Lord, was supposedly a fairly large boss monster over two meters tall, and wielded a large bone axe in tandem with a leather buckler. Despite his size, however, Illfang was apparently pretty fast; the Kobold Lord had roughly the same reaction speed as a wolf, and was able to leap great distances in order to either escape danger or close distance between itself and a target. At the start of the battle, three Kobold Sentinels would spawn to defend the boss. These sentinels were stronger than the average mob, but they weren't anything particularly threatening to a group of 2 or more players. With three of them spawning, a group of six was deemed as sufficient for dealing with them. Three additional ones would spawn for every one of the boss's depleted health bars save the last, though, and as the boss was supposed to have 4 health bars, that made for a total of twelve sentinels to deal with.

The 48 players chosen for the raid group would split into 8 full parties of 6, with each party being assigned a specific role. Teams A and B were largely composed of tankier players, whose job was to keep the pressure on the boss and tank its hits, whereas Teams C and D comprised of the faster, more agile players who would deal damage to the boss, but could move out of the way quick enough for the boss's aggro to be drawn back towards the tanks. While the boss was undoubtedly big, it wasn't nearly large enough for 24 players to surround and hit it without getting into each other's way; as such, the tank and DPS teams would be partnered with another player in their team, and take turns doing their jobs, switching with each other whenever the one currently fighting was low on health. With only half of each team fighting at any given time, it also meant that the players would have more room to maneuver around the boss. This part of the plan in particular met with resounding approval from the players gathered, since it drastically decreased the chances of someone dying.

As for the remaining two teams, E and F, they were tasked with defeating the Sentinels as quickly as possible, before moving in to support the groups wailing on the boss. The definition of 'support' was left broad; it could range from providing healing items to the wounded, or even taking over their roles in the event that both partners were left low on health. Someone suggested running in to use a couple of sword skills to deal damage or interrupt the boss while the main DPS groups had theirs on cooldown, which was generally met with agreement as the majority of players relegated to support groups were about as agile as those in the DPS groups anyway.

"So, when Illfang reaches the last third of his last health bar, he abandons his axe and buckler for a talwar, at which point he will make use of 'draw cuts'- y'know, like in iaijutsu- and make use of his jumping prowess to get away, before jumping back in for another strike. The talwar isn't very good for swinging around, though, so if we hit it with crowd control skills when he prepares to jump, he shouldn't be able to break out of the encirclement. In the event he _is_ able to make the jump, however, break the formation and allow the tank players with the highest health take the blow on their shields. There's a delay before he's able to jump or attack again, so use that time to surround him once more, and just keep wailing on him. At this point, Teams A and B need not stand at the front, but instead give way to Teams C and D so as to maximise damage. Remember, at this point he only has one third of his health bar left, so it'd be best to finish him quick," Diavel stopped, looking up from his booklet to scan the crowd. "Anyone have any questions?"

"I have one," a player sat somewhere in the middle of the stands raised his hand,"Where did all this information come from? It's all fairly in-depth, so I can't imagine a scouting group could have found this out."

"Ah. An excellent question. You're quite right in saying there's no way a scouting group could find information this detailed, but I assure you what I have just told you all came from a credible source. This booklet I am holding," and here Diavel held the booklet up high, such that everyone seated in the stands could get a look at it, "was written by a beta tester."

No sooner had the phrase "beta tester" left Diavel's mouth than a second, much louder voice interrupted the blue-haired man, cutting him off.

" _Beta testers?_ " a man with strange cactus-like hair cried out as he stood from his seat, pointing accusingly at the tiny booklet Diavel had held up for them to see. "They're the reason we're still stuck in this game! Why the hell would we trust anything _those_ guys give us?"

Diavel blinked, clearly confused at the man's sudden outburst. "I beg your pardon?"

"You heard me," the man said, hopping down from the steps to address the other players, "those guys are crooks! Cheats! They've been hogging all the good farming spots, leaving us newbies to die! Having known about everything prior to launch, those fuckers took their chance when the rest of us were still taking baby steps! They take all the good loot in all the good areas, leaving nothing but crumbs for everyone else!"

The cactus-man, as Yuuki had internally dubbed him, continued with a personal anecdote on how he had went with a group of friends to kill monsters, only to find the whole place devoid of them as beta testers had already cleared the mobs roaming in the area. If she was honest, she didn't quite understand what he was saying, and she meant that literally; the man spat his words with such disdain that his complaints slurred into a mess of incomprehensible, angry-sounding noises.

"Diavel, you're a good man," cactus-man said, patting him on the shoulder, "but don't let yourself be taken in by their lies! I bet you that we'd walk in and get slaughtered, only for whoever who survives to find that the beta testers were using as guinea pigs all along!"

Diavel smiled a little at the guy, looking a tad bit uncomfortable. "I don't think that's very likely-"

"I'll have to stop you right there, cactus-man," Yuuki said, to said cactus-man's surprise, "your little rant was weird from the start, but I think you've crossed the line a bit saying that the beta testers are intentionally trying to get us killed."

The man turned to address her with a scowl. "The name's Kibaou, you little shit! Throwing around insults like that, you're being pretty defensive aren't you? You don't happen to be a beta tester yourself, do you, missy?" The cactus-man sneered in response.

"Well, that wasn't so much an insult as what I dubbed you as since I didn't know your name, but that aside, Kibaou-san, I find your hate towards beta testers rather unjustified. I mean, sure, your sharing just now was heartbreaking, I think, but regardless of what those guys did to you- and, honestly, from what I could gather it wasn't really much- it's a bit unfair for you to lump all beta testers together like that. Furthermore," Yuuki raised her voice as Kibaou made to interject, "farming in an MMO is not always, isn't it? The beta testers were just doing it as efficiently as they could, which unfortunately resulted in a lack of monsters around to kill for everyone else. But that's hardly unexpected; there's 100,000 of us on this one floor, and even if majority of the playerbase is still moping about in town, good farming spots and the like are pretty limited. Sure, there's probably enough mobs to go around for everyone, but if that were the case everyone here right now would be about level 5. This unfortunate circumstance was brought about by game design that isn't really catered to tens of thousands of players being constantly logged on, not by beta testers intentionally cucking you. And before you ask again, no, I am not a beta tester."

Kibaou crossed his arms, and looked up at her defiantly. "That's all well and good for you to say, but how do you know what the beta testers are thinking if you aren't one yourself?"

Yuuki blinked a bit in response. "Wow, okay...so we're doing it like that, huh? Alright then." Reaching down, she hauled her socially awkward partner up by the arm, ignoring the guy's protests. "This man is the one who helped me check into an inn, and showed me the ropes with the skills and levelling systems, all while fighting monsters at my side. This man, my partner, is also a beta tester." she said triumphantly, vaguely gesturing at the seething cactus-man with Kirito's arm, while its owner just sort of stood there.

"See here, missy, if the guy helps you out like that, and continues to adventure with you afterwards, it'd be in your best interests to be a bit more wary of hi-"

"If I might interject," a deep, masculine voice abruptly cut Kibaou's next lecture short, " I do believe that in this case, the burden of proof is on you, Kibaou. Unless you come up with sufficient evidence that the beta testers are banding against us, I myself am more inclined to believe that the beta testers mean us no harm. Just because they have a bit more experience with how things work in this world, doesn't mean they're any less trapped than we are. And as the young lady mentioned, many of them have been extremely helpful to the rest of us."

Halfway through Kibaou looked like he was about to say something, but when the owner of the voice stood up, cactus-man immediately shut his trap. The other player, a large, bald, and very muscular african american man, slowly descended the steps, before proceeding to tower over the formerly raving Kibaou, who now looked somewhat cowed by the presence of the larger man. Said man proceeded to open his menu, navigating it by touch for a while before a small booklet materialised in his hand. Upon closer inspection as he held it up, it looked identical to Diavel's.

"This booklet that Diavel here was using isn't just a lowdown on the boss of this floor, but a players guide, full of tips and tricks on how to properly survive in this world. Not many seem to know this, but within the first week of our being trapped here, this booklet was being given out, for free, at the item store in the Town of Beginnings. And, as mentioned before, it was handwritten by beta testers."

Here, Yuuki sort of expected an audible gasp, followed by a stir among the audience, but contrary to her expectations the crowd was largely silent. The large man seemed to have expected this, though, and it was after chuckling a bit to himself that he continued, "but you guys already knew this, didn't you? I had a suspicion, but this all but proves it. I mean, if you think about it, it'd have been weird any other way. You guys… you're all beta testers, aren't you?"

There was a bit of a stir, before one by one, members of the crowd began to respond in the affirmative. Yuuki was surprised to find a vast majority of the gathered players were all beta testers, and from the looks of it, many of the beta testers were just as surprised.

"See how many of these 'cheats' were willing to fling themselves into the line of fire? Even if they have beaten this boss before, it wasn't exactly under the threat of death. While I respect your bravery for volunteering to go for this raid, I, and everyone else, would very much appreciate it if you were to cease your beta tester hate, at least until we've beaten the boss. For all intents and purposes, the guide book seems to be very accurate and trustworthy. I propose we all forget any of this hateful talk ever happened, and proceed with the raid as planned." the man said decisively, and now thoroughly cowed, Kibaou backed down. Well, for now, at least. The guy still looked pretty angry, but he at least realised that the crowd, being about 70% beta tester, wasn't all too inclined to be swayed by his opinions.

"Well...leaving that little digression aside," Diavel piped up again, "I'd like to ask you all to form you parties of 6 by the end of today, and hopefully familiarise yourselves with each other before the raid tomorrow. Remember, cooperation is key, so if you don't think you can properly work with someone, avoid having them in your team, or at least don't partner up with them. I'd like to remind you all that this is literally a matter of life and death, so please don't let courtesy stop you from choosing proper team members. With that being said, in the case that there really isn't anywhere else for a player to go, it'd be in your best interest to put your differences aside for the sake of your survivals. For tank-oriented players, please stay behind a bit so that we can form teams A and B now. DPS and support groups don't require particularly different stat spreads, but we'd appreciate it if those who intend to play more supportive roles to invest some col on healing crystals as opposed to potions."

* * *

The meeting having finally ended, players began to get up from their seats, a buzz of conversation starting up as they began to look for party members for the raid.

"We should probably start looking too. Come on, Yuuki," Kirito said, gesturing towards a group of players. It was only in the absence of a reply that he realised Yuuki was no longer seated next to him, but already conversing with another player nearby.

"Hey, you don't have a team yet, right? Would you happen to be interested in joining ours?" Yuuki asked cheerily, bending down a bit to address the other player, who was still seated on the step. "Well, it's not much of a team, since it's just me and my partner, but we're working on that part."

"H-hey, Yuuki! Don't just go off recruiting players without me! I'm a part of this team too, right?" Kirito protested as he caught up with his partner. Yuuki turned, blinking innocently back at him. "So, you _wanted_ to go around talking to people?"

Kirito sweatdropped a bit, much to Yuuki's amusement. "Well, no, but you could've at least waited for my input." He didn't seem to actually mind, though. Stepping forward a bit, he stooped down to address the player.

"I realise this might be a bit presumptuous on my part, but… you're a solo player, aren't you?"

The hooded player turned a bit, answering flatly, "so what if I am?"

If Kirito was surprised that the player was a girl, he didn't show it. "I know this is unfamiliar territory, but you heard Diavel; everyone who participates in this boss raid is gonna have to be part of a party. It's only going to be for this fight," he quickly added when the player seemed ready to decline, "but it'd be great if you would be willing to join us. Of course, no pressure or anything! It's just that, if you're planning to participate, you'll have to find a party sooner or later anyway. Unless, of course, you don't-"

"I intend to participate," the girl replied curtly, as if mildly offended by the idea that she didn't. "Fine then. I suppose I don't mind joining up with you two for the time being." The girl then proceeded to open her menu, before turning towards Kirito expectantly for an invite. He obliged, and with her acceptance of it, the player's name and health bar appeared at the upper left hand corner of Yuuki's HUD.

 _Asuna…_

It was a beautiful name, and as she finally stood up, taking off her hood, it was clear that her beauty didn't end there, either. Asuna was fairly tall, and her posture, proud and unyielding, only served to accentuate the fact. Her skin was fair, but not pale, a complexion that spoke of perfect health, and impeccable skin care. Her hair was lovely too, but the style was something Yuuki didn't think she had seen before. For the most part, it was long, extending past her shoulders. Her fringe went a bit past her eyebrows, and there was a bit of gap in it a little to the left of the center of her forehead. The curious part, though, was a braid that wrapped itself, like a laurel wreath, around her head, ending in a small ponytail at the back. All in all, Yuuki felt this person could have been the most beautiful person she'd ever seen, were it not for one unfortunate detail that detracted quite a bit from her overall image.

It was her eyes, Yuuki decided. Large, round, and hazel brown, those eyes were, like the rest of her, pretty to look at- but they held no emotion in them whatsoever. What could have been an ethereal beauty was now naught but a visually pleasing shell of a teenage girl, more akin to a doll than a person.

Soulless.

Dead.

* * *

...

 _I...don't mind this. Whatsoever._

 _..._

 _This… is all I've ever wanted._

* * *

 _...why am I remembering that now?_

Although the whole episode couldn't have lasted any more than a second, Yuuki's heart had begun to beat furiously, and breathing had suddenly gotten a lot harder. A bead of sweat ran down her brow, and as she moved a hand up to wipe it, she realised her fists had been clenched.

 _What the hell was all that about?_

Gritting her teeth, Yuuki violently pushed those thoughts aside. Quickly calming herself as much as she could, she pasted a smile back onto her face before anyone could notice.

"Well, with that settled, it'd probably be best if we acquired more teammates," Kirito said, turning away to look out at the slowly dispersing crowd.

"I don't think Diavel and his group actually counted, but didn't they say there were 'more than enough' players for the full raid group?" Asuna pointed out.

"You're right… well, can't really blame them, what with Kibaou's kicking up a fuss in the middle of the meeting. I suppose it slipped their minds. Well, in any case, I suppose they'll deal with that little hiccup tomorrow. For now, though, it means we might have a few more stragglers to choose from."

Looking over the remnants of the crowd from their vantage point at the top of the steps, Yuuki caught sight of a few players who seemed to be alone, or at least not in a full group of six. She more or less memorised their positions, and began to make her way towards them.

"Hold on, Yuuki," a hand landed on her shoulder, and Yuuki turned to see Kirito leaning forward, hesitating a bit before opening his mouth.

"I was thinking about what you said earlier, and...I think I kinda need to work on my social skills. I would technically be better at optimizing our team composition than you would anyway, so, uh… I'd like it if you would let me look for other members." Kirito grimaced as he said that part, and Yuuki was forced to bite back a chuckle, even as she wondered what the guy was planning. Because, come on, there was no way _Kirito_ , of all people, would willingly volunteer for such a task.

"So… maybe you could spend some time with Asuna in town."

As if the message wasn't clear enough, Kirito made sure to punctuate his speech with a myriad of expressive eyebrow motions.

 _Help her,_ they seemed to say. _She obviously needs it, but I'm a loner NEET with no social skills, much less with girls. Would you be so kind as to help her while I go off to commit social suicide, Yuuki-sama?_

Well, she was sure there were bound to be a few more praises in there somewhere, but that was the gist of it, at least. Giggling a bit to herself, Yuuki beamed at her new teammates.

"Will do, Kirito-san!"

* * *

 **Well, if you guys have noticed, this chapter is a great deal longer than the previous two. To be honest, I feel as if it went on a bit longer than it should have, since this chapter was originally suppose to mainly focus on Asuna's introduction. I'm aware that I could have just referenced the strategy meeting as a past event and gotten on with it, but I kind of wanted to try my hand at writing the Kibaou scene, so I thought, _it'll just be a quick little event, what could possibly go wrong?_**

 **Well, this happened. Somehow, I guess spreading out the writing over several days screws the pacing over a bit. At any rate, Asuna will have a proper introduction next chapter, I suppose, and since it seems to be a recurring theme, expect it to be about this long. In all honesty, if the next chapter comes out at more than 5k words like this one did, I might just collapse chapters 1 and 2 into a single longer chapter, just because that's how it was technically written in the first place anyway.**


	4. Something to Smile For

"Thank you for your patronage!" said the woman, bowing politely from behind her stall.

Yuuki waved back, smiling. "You're welcome!" Of course, being an NPC, the stall owner didn't wave back, having returned to her idle position of smiling behind the counter. But, hey, it was the thought that counted, right?

Taking a bite out of one of the buns she purchased, Yuuki strode toward the fountain in the middle of the square. The meeting earlier having taken place in the morning, right now was just about lunch time. While there were food services provided in the inns, most of the nearby ones were ridiculously crowded, to the point where even finding somewhere to stand while eating proved difficult. Yuuki had thus decided to eat at the fountain in the town square, since it had one of those concrete rings around the water basin that served as a bench of sorts. Sure, it meant she'd have to eat a lighter meal, but she wasn't all that hungry anyway. As a matter of fact, hunger seemed to have been toned down a bit in SAO; while definitely present, it didn't seem to hit quite as hard as it did in real life. It was more or less the same as how pain was muted, she supposed.

 _Speaking of muted…_

Yuuki sat down, handing the hooded girl next to her a second bun she had purchased. Said girl shifted a bit, seemingly eyeing the piece of bread from under her hood, before taking the bun and beginning to munch on it. Much like hunger and pain in this world, Asuna too seemed to be muted; whatever spirit she may have had in real life, here it was subdued to the point of nonexistence. Such was Yuuki's personal theory, at any rate, for why the girl displayed so little emotion for the few hours she had known her. Even now, she was buried within her cloak, munching on her bun in solitude.

Yuuki frowned. The presence of seats aside, another reason she had decided to have a meal at the fountain was so that they could be relatively alone together, which should have by all means made conversation natural, inevitable even. Well, sure, Yuuki hadn't exactly spoken yet either, but Asuna just sort of… closed herself off. Like any and all attempts to breach the silence were shut down by her aura alone. Not that it was going to stop her from trying, though.

"Isn't that bun kind of plain?" she tested, probing for a response. Her new teammate didn't reply, but did turn her head a bit to acknowledge her presence. Baby steps for sure, but progress was progress.

"I happen to know a way to make it taste a little better," she continued, bringing up her menu."Well, Kirito told me about it, actually. There's this item you can get from this quest called," and here Yuuki stifled a laugh, " 'The Heifer Strikes Back'. Turns out the quest name is basically a glorified version of 'The Cow's Counter-Attack'." Locating the item within her inventory, Yuuki materialised it and handed it to Asuna.

"...cream?" Asuna intoned, her words sounding more like a statement than a question. "What am I supposed to do with this? We're in the middle of town. I can't spread the cream on the bun without a knife."

"Actually, yes you can. You don't need a knife, silly," Yuuki giggled in response. "You just tap the bottle, like so," she explained, tapping the bottle once to bring up a 'Use' button. "See how it's greyed out? Now, if you just bring it a bit closer to the bun…and voila! Just tap 'use', and the cream will be applied automatically."

Sure enough, in Asuna's hands was now a cream bun, as opposed to a nothing bun. Granted, it wasn't _much_ of a step up, considering how much of a step down it was compared to the food they had in the real world. Still, it was something.

"...it's pretty good," Asuna said, sounding surprised the mere application of cream could upgrade the quality of her meal quite that much. The hooded girl began to eat in earnest, wolfing down the bun with quick, hungry bites. Yuuki grinned.

"I know, right? What's more, the quest is pretty easy, and infinitely repeatable. The jar of cream itself can be used up to 5 times, so if you complete the quest once every day, you'll have enough spares to last you till whenever this'll be available in stores."

"...does the quest give any col or EXP?" Asuna questioned, pausing in her munching.

"Hmm? Well, yes, but not a lot. Quests like that are generally done for the ite-"

"No offense, Yuuki, but while I do appreciate your little tip, I didn't come here to eat good food."

Yuuki frowned a bit at her strangely determined denial. "Alright, then, so what did you come here for?"

"So I can still be me. I'd rather stay myself until the very end than sit and rot away at an inn, back in the first town. Even if I get killed by a monster, I don't want to lose to this game. To this world. No matter what."

Asuna's reply came instantaneously, and with such a deep conviction it left Yuuki speechless for a second. So this was the driving force keeping her going forward, huh? She didn't really expect it, but in a way Yuuki could respect such a determination. While most of the other players had spent weeks denying their circumstances, Asuna had instead chosen to deny the despair that came with it. Thus, when the others leapt off of Aincrad in their denial, Asuna had stood resolute, stubbornly refusing to let the world get the better of her.

Yes, in a way, Yuuki could respect her determination. But on the other hand…

" 'Even if I get killed by a monster, I don't want to lose to this game'? I mean, I might be misinterpreting something here, Asuna-san...but from the way you said it, it sounds like you don't care if you die, so long as you can keep your pride at the end."

If Asuna was surprised at the sudden shift in Yuuki's tone, she didn't show it. "Yes, while I don't think I worded it to suggest that, I suppose that does ring true to my beliefs. This is a death game, after all; isn't death more or less inevitable? The best I can do is make sure that the game can't take my spirit, even if it takes my life. Do you have a problem with that, Yuuki?" Asuna challenged.

Did she? Yuuki didn't know. She supposed she did, for if she didn't she probably wouldn't have spoken up about it. The question, she supposed, was why? Well, she had been rather irked by Asuna's casual dismissal of her life, she supposed. Yes, that was probably it. It wasn't as if it was the first time she'd heard people talk like that, nor was it the first time she'd felt disapproval for such outlooks on life either.

Except this time wasn't like the others.

She wasn't exactly sure how, though. Somehow, a new, foreign feeling was present. It was rather abstract, as feelings tend to be; there was a vague sense of discomfort, and a general _wrongness_ that seemed to gnaw at her more with every second she tried to comprehend it.

She shoved it all aside. It wasn't a problem she would be able to solve anytime soon, and frankly, _her_ feelings weren't the object of importance at the moment.

"...yes, I have a problem with that," Yuuki sighed, the edge in her voice from before disappearing. Rising from her seat, she took a few steps forward, beginning to speak without looking back at her teammate. "Call me selfish, but I don't want you to die. And while it's great and all that you don't plan on ending yourself like some of the other players, I can't help but worry at your disregard for your own life." She twirled a bit to face Asuna, flashing her a small smile. "Just because death is permanent doesn't mean you should simply throw your life away; lots of people seem to forget this, but death in the real world is permanent too."

"And I suppose death in the real world is equally likely to come by?" Asuna countered, voice even sharper than before. "Or are you suggesting I stay here to rot in a safe zone? Like I said, Yuuki, I would much prefer to die myself than live on as a shell of a person."

It was ironic, perhaps, that Asuna had chosen to use that particular expression. Not too long ago, a 'shell of a person' was exactly how Yuuki would have described her.

"Isn't that exactly how you are now, though? Acting all cold and emotionless like that," Yuuki pointed out, causing Asuna to wince. "It's better than being all mopey and depressed, I guess, but don't you think finding something to, I dunno, _smile_ about would be better? I mean, laughing in the face of it all would basically be the biggest slap you could give to this game, wouldn't it? It'd also be, y'know...healthier. Than what you're doing now, at least."

Perhaps unable to maintain the tension in the face of Yuuki's naked concern, Asuna sighed, her stoic demeanor falling away as she allowed herself to slump forward.

"That may be true, but there isn't much to smile about here, is there?"

For one moment, emotion found its way back into Asuna's voice. While it was technically better than the soulless monotone from before, though, it hadn't exactly been the kind of emotion Yuuki had hoped to get out of the girl.

What she had just heard was a girl in pain. That would be the best way to describe it. It wasn't quite the same as the cries of anguish she'd heard on launch day, however. Those had been desperate, bordering on madness as reality overwhelmed their comprehension. Asuna...hers was different. It spoke of a reluctant acceptance, the kind one would talk about with a bitter smile. In fact, even though her face had been obscured by her hood, Yuuki would hazard to guess Asuna had one of those smiles on right now.

"...I got it. So, all you need is something to smile about, is that right?"

Surprised by her reply, Asuna jerked her head upwards, and for the first time since their conversation started, their eyes finally met; Asuna's a bit wider than usual, and Yuuki's with a twinkle that seemed all too foreign given the heavy conversation that preceded it.

"I just so happen to know a place that might have what you need. It's back in the first town, though, so we're gonna have to-"

"I refuse. Going all the way back to the first town is going to be a huge waste of time. Given how we are expected at a boss raid tomorrow, I find it more prudent to either focus on gathering supplies, or getting some experience outside of town."

Yuuki blinked as Asuna's stoic persona from before made a comeback. Did she not get through to her yet? Weird...wasn't she supposed to follow her out of curiosity or something? She'd be reluctant, sure, and would probably protest for most of the journey there, but she still was supposed to come with her. That's how it worked in anime she watched, at least. Yuuki voiced her confusion aloud.

"Aren't you supposed to follow me out of curiosity, or something?"

"Why should I? We've barely met. I'm not going to go out of my way to accommodate you, especially if your requests are going to be as tedious as that."

Yuuki pouted. So they were going to have to do this the hard way, huh? Well looking at it from Asuna's perspective, her request _was_ rather ridiculous. After all, as far as she was concerned a random stranger she had agreed to team up with was asking her to follow her to a town a sizeable distance away, with only the vague promise of something that would make her happy. Yeah, now that she thought about it, it was a good thing she happened to be a small, innocent-looking girl- otherwise, she'd probably have come off as pretty dang suspicious.

This wasn't exactly something she'd like to wait on, though. Tomorrow, they were going for a boss raid, and regardless of outcome, it seemed unlikely Asuna would be staying in their party. Other, much darker possibilities that might arise from a girl who didn't care for her life facing off against a giant monster weren't lost on her, either- if she was going to help Asuna, it was now or never.

"...Alright, how about we have a duel? If you win, you don't have to come with me, and I'll stop pestering you." Yuuki grinned, resting a hand on the blade slung on her waist. "If not, you're coming with me."

While it wasn't ideal, this was the only thing she could really think of to convince Asuna to follow her. And she _needed_ to follow her. Her happiness, if not her life, was at stake here.

"...no. Why would I agree to that?" Asuna asked, dashing Yuuki's plans in an instant. "All I would stand to gain would be a chance at getting you to stop pestering me." The hooded girl looked up at Yuuki, raising an unimpressed eyebrow as if to ask if she was done.

Yuuki sweatdropped. _Well, that was a bust._

What could she do, though? She supposed she could try and make Asuna's win reward more enticing, but it wasn't as if she had anything she wanted. She didn't have much time to think, either; Asuna looked like she was ready to leave at any minute. At her wits end, Yuuki tried the only thing that came to mind.

"...I'll throw in another cream bun?"

Asuna stood up and began to walk away.

"Wait!" Yuuki called, the urgency in her voice temporarily halting Asuna's steps.

 _It's now or never._

Willing her menu open, Yuuki continued speaking before her teammate could change her mind and leave. "I know it's asking a lot, but… I'm trying to help you." Navigating through her menu frantically, Yuuki sent a duel request to the other player.

"At the very least," she pleaded, "let me prove it."

A small screen blinked into existence in front of the other girl. "...first...strike…?" she read aloud, before turning back to eye her acquaintance quizzically. "You do realise my weapon of choice is a rapier, right? A first strike duel is undoubtedly going to end in a win for me."

"Hey, you never know until you try, do you?" she grinned playfully, "Besides, it's the least I should do if I wanna prove myself, don't you think?"

There was a moment of pensive silence as Asuna contemplated the request, before at last she spoke.

"Fine, then. If you're so willing to put yourself up against odds like that, I suppose I could humour you."

Yuuki's grin grew larger, threatening to split her cheeks wide open as Asuna finally accepted the duel request. A timer popped into existence in the air above them, counting down as the two swordswomen stepped backwards to create some distance. "That's the spirit!" Yuuki laughed. "Oh, before I forget! The bet's still on, right? I know I said I wanted to prove myself and all, but..." She drew her blade with a flourish, grinning wildly with anticipation. "Speeds up the process and stuff."

Asuna scoffed, taking off her hood. "Since we're already dueling, we might as well." She drew her weapon as well, the blade glinting a pale green in the afternoon sun.

The two fell into their respective fighting stances, Yuuki facing her opponent side-on, her prized sword held up at her side, forming a sort of V shape with her arm whereas Asuna stood facing forwards, her rapier held close to her chest, blade pointing up towards the sky. The timer above them counted down to ten. "Say, this can count as preparation for tomorrow too, can't it? Diavel did say to get to know our teammates, after all." Yuuki winked. "Let's get to know each other, shall we?"

Asuna rolled her eyes and abruptly changed her stance, shifting to the left as she brought her rapier up before her face, the hilt held slightly behind her head. "Sorry," she replied, eyes narrowing in a focused glare, "but I don't intend to let this fight drag on long enough for that."

As soon as the timer hit zero, Asuna's rapier began to glow a bright green, before all of a sudden she burst forward. Yuuki violently jerked her head backwards, the blade of Asuna's rapier passing by not an inch away from her face. Yuuki's eyes momentarily widened in shock.

 _That was a sword skill!_ She realised. _That's why she changed her stance! She intended to end this duel the moment it started!_

The fading glow of the rapier before her snapped her out of her shock, and her instincts took over. Yuuki slammed her blade into the hilt of Asuna's, running it down the length of the rapier to push it down into the ground. Retracing her sword's path and following through, Yuuki delivered a quick slash at Asuna's head, only for it to meet air as the other girl leapt back and out of the way.

Yuuki braced herself for the next strike, but found herself confused when nothing came. Instead of continuing her assault, her chestnut-haired opponent slowly took steps back, widening the distance she had closed at the start. As Asuna assumed a duelist's pose, eyeing her warily, Yuuki realised that she honestly hadn't expected there to be an exchange at all; rather, she had been convinced that the fight would end at the first attack. As a result, Asuna was now quite unsteady on her feet, unsure of how to go about with the duel with her trump card, the element of surprise, lost.

Yuuki took her chance.

Darting forwards, Yuuki activated 'Brandish', her Onyx Slasher shining a dark purple as she delivered three horizontal slashes in quick succession. Asuna, unready as she had been, blocked the first strike clumsily, but rather impressively regained her poise in time to defend against the second. Unperturbed, Yuuki aimed her third strike lower, the final slash cutting for Asuna's ankles instead.

Perhaps it was the tell-tale angle of her sword before swinging, or maybe she had just underestimated Asuna's instincts, but either way the other girl leapt up into the air, Yuuki's sword passing harmlessly underneath her. The unmistakable hum of a sword skill alerted her to the impending danger, but having just used one herself, Yuuki found herself unable to bring her sword back up in time, and with a yelp of panic she dove forwards.

She had barely finished executing her hasty roll under Asuna's feet before a blade of light lanced out behind her, kicking up a large cloud of dust that billowed outwards from where she had struck. The purple glow of her blade finally fading, Yuuki found herself able to move her sword again, and with a grin she activated another sword skill, causing the glow that receded before to return full force.

Whipping around, Yuuki let loose 'Slashwave', sending a diagonal arc of purple energy at her opponent. Caught in mid-air, with her back facing towards the attack no less, Yuuki was sure Asuna was going to take the hit - but her feet hit the ground just in time, and spinning on her heel, Asuna caught the attack on her rapier, grimacing a bit as it fought against her.

In the second or so it took for the slashwave to dissipate, however, Yuuki had already crossed the distance between them. A quick upwards swing was sidestepped, but she went with her momentum to bring the blade back around, pinning Asuna's rapier to the ground once more. Now stood with her back facing her opponent, Yuuki hazarded to try something new, and with her free left arm she elbowed Asuna in the stomach, causing her to double over.

While the hit didn't seem to count as a proper strike, it gave Yuuki the opening she needed, and spinning to the left she aimed a slash at her opponent's torso, only for it to once again meet with nothing but air. Asuna had fallen to the floor after doubling over, before rolling backwards to create some distance between them once more.

Apparently, she had also activated a skill somewhere in between those motions, and Asuna's sword shone a whitish-green as she lunged forward from her crouching position, calm facade from before completely upheaved as she let forth a battlecry. Yuuki readied her own blade to receive the blow, but quickly realised she would likely be unable to block a stabbing attack with only a blade.

 _Crap, can sword skills be redirected?_

Unable to fully recall the details surrounding swords skills and unwilling to take the risk, Yuuki dropped to the ground, the air above her suddenly blowing her hair back as the sword skill failed to connect. Now stuck in a post-skill pause, Asuna was wide open, and with a cry Yuuki thrust her sword forward.

The events that followed proved her wrong, though; Asuna hadn't been stuck in a post-skill pause, but had instead been on the middle of executing a two-hit skill. The first having missed, Asuna redirected the second strike towards the ground and, using her rapier as a sort of pivot, vaulted up and over Yuuki's thrust. Twisting in mid-air and landing in another crouch, Asuna prepared to launch her next attack.

Not to be outdone, Yuuki placed her hands on the ground, sword and all, and performed two simultaneous frontal flips - thank god for system assist - to finally get out of Asuna's rather ridiculous range. She wanted to attack before her opponent could adapt to the greater distance between them, but Slashwave was still on cooldown, and was frankly the only thing she had that could trump the range of a rapier user. Usually, this would mean that it was time to get up close and personal; but when the first strike could end the duel, was that really such a safe bet?

 _What else can I do, though?_ She asked herself, racking her brain for any ideas. _The last time I tried to blitz her she jumped over it, and countered before I could even get out of post-skill pause._

But...that had arisen because she used a sword skill, hadn't it? Fast as her opponent was, Yuuki felt confident that without system interference, she was probably faster. If she could theoretically get close, and stay close, her slashing weapon would give her an advantage over Asuna's thrusting one.

An opportunity presented itself earlier than she thought, as upon turning around she found Asuna in the post-skill pause of what looked to be the sword skill she had opened the fight with, the dash-thrust that crossed the distance between them in less than a second. Now, however, it seemed Asuna had misjudged the distance, or maybe activated the skill before Yuuki's second flip, as she was frozen in her pause some distance away. Yuuki dashed forwards in glee, but was dismayed to find the light of Asuna's rapier fading rapidly; either she had activated it a bit sooner than she had estimated, or this skill in particular didn't have a very long pause attached to it. As quickly as she was closing the distance, she didn't think she'd make it in time to do the whole 'up close and personal' thing.

Sure enough, as she approached slashing range, Asuna's rapier rid itself of its glow, and with a cry Asuna thrust it forward once more, hoping to take advantage of Yuuki's momentum and impale her before she could stop. In the split second Yuuki had before it was too late, one question rang in her mind.

 _Up, or down?_

Perhaps - okay, _definitely_ \- influenced by Asuna's fantastic rapier-vault from before, Yuuki leapt upwards, and over her opponent. Twisting as she sailed overhead, Yuuki lashed out at Asuna's back, but only succeeded in catching her hood. Fearing a roll would provide Asuna with the space she needed for a counterattack, Yuuki landed rather roughly on her feet, grimacing as her HP bar actually went down from the unnatural impact. Evidently, the system bailed her out of that one, but she had the feeling that had the angle of her landing been any more ridiculous, the system would've let her sprawl onto the floor, programming to make players feel like badasses be damned.

It was enough, though. When Asuna whirled around, blade in hand, it was met with a clang of steel, or whatever their swords were made out of, as Yuuki's Onyx Slasher crashed into it. Seemingly swearing under her breath, Asuna leapt back, but this time Yuuki followed, cutting downwards in a two-handed slice as she pounced, her opponent barely able to redirect the strike as Yuuki's blade whispered against the edge of hers, before viciously swinging upwards again, almost catching Asuna in the chin as she leant back, eyes wide as she realised how close she had been to getting hit.

Yuuki sliced downwards again, but this time at a slight angle, aiming to catch Asuna in the leg, but likely anticipating it Asuna blocked the blow early, catching it on the middle of her rapier with her other hand holding on to the end of the greenish blade for extra stability. Unexpectedly, she then kicked forwards, and Yuuki cried out as she buckled over, tasting a bit of her own medicine and not enjoying it one bit.

Needless to say, she hadn't expected a move like that from the elegant duelist that was Asuna, but she saved her surprise for later in favour of knocking aside a frightening lunge, and with an irritated click of the tongue she realised Asuna's kick had gotten her just enough distance for stabbing to be effective again. It wasn't quite far enough to be out of slashing range, though, and Yuuki twirled, batting aside another thrust with a diagonal upwards slash, followed by a diagonal downwards one when she came back around. The rapier shot back down again to deflect it, however, and Asuna took the moment when Yuuki's blade wasn't swinging as her cue to jump backwards. Retreating a few quick hops further, her rapier was now held back up at her face, only this time it was held much like a rifle would be, Asuna even glaring down it's edge as if to say she had her in her sights.

Instead of readying her sword to parry or receive the blow, Yuuki held it at her side. _While she has me beat in range, a lunge or a stab is but a single point I have to avoid!_ Shethought _. If I sway just a bit off the mark, it'll miss me, and if I follow up with a diagonal slash, she'll be hard pressed to avoid it!_

Fully intent on ending the duel in the next move, Yuuki charged forward, blade held in a two handed grip behind her. A cry began to rise from her lungs, and soon what escaped her lips was a roar of victory. Asuna too responded in kind, and with a roar of her own she dashed forward, thrusting her rapier before her.

At the last second before they clashed, Yuuki's next step forward was off to the left, Yuuki herself ducking down slightly as she swung her blade, but to her horror Asuna's rapier ever so slightly traced her movements, and would probably embed itself in her shoulder. As a result of moving to stab her, however, Asuna's arm was now closer to Yuuki's blade, and was set to be cut right at the elbow.

The second passed, and the two delivered their blows.

 **Immortal Object**

Small, purple screens bearing these words popped up with soft buzzer sounds, and for a moment the two combatants looked to each other in mutual confusion. A screen suddenly appeared above them, and looking up at it the two girls stared in disbelief.

 **Match time has elapsed. As win condition has not been fulfilled for either player, the match is a draw.**

…

"SERIOUSLY?" Yuuki exclaimed incredulously. "We were, like, this close! THIS close! It's gotta be a joke, right? Right?!"

Asuna, who had been staring at the message with her jaw unhinged herself, seemed to snap out of her stupour at Yuuki's outburst, and quickly composed herself, coughing into her fist as she straightened her posture.

"Well," she began, sheathing her rapier, "it would seem neither of us managed to attain victory. I must confess I didn't quite expect such an outcome, but I will accept it with grace."

Taking a step back, Asuna bowed.

"Since we are back where we started, you are permitted to continue badgering me. I shall resolutely continue to reject you without mercy, but please continue where you left off."

"H-harsh!"

It was somewhat amazing, in its own way, how Asuna brushed the results of the match aside so easily, for the ridiculous timing of what had just occurred left Yuuki wondering if whatever god out there - or, well, Kayaba, she supposed - cut the timer at that moment on purpose, just to see how she'd take it.

Well, whatever. While she had went into the duel entirely intent on winning, she had made a little...precaution beforehand. She hadn't thought it'd actually come in handy, seeing as how unlikely it was for there to be a tie in a first strike duel, and to be honest she'd only done it because she saw it in an anime somewhere, and when the other guy played right into the protagonist's hands it made for a _really_ cool moment. Or so it seemed to her, anyway, but things that caught your attention at five years old tended to stick.

"Not so fast," she called, with a confidence in her voice that caused Asuna to turn around. A smirk crept it's way up to her lips as she caught sight of Asuna's confused face, and she continued. "Perhaps you misunderstood the terms of our agreement. What I said, which you agreed to, by the way, was that if you won, I'd stop pestering you, and you wouldn't have to come with me. _Otherwise,_ you'd have to follow." She took an inordinate amount of pleasure, she felt, when Asuna's eyes grew wide, and her face momentarily contorted with panic.

"I-if you thought you could fool me, you're sadly mistaken," Asuna replied, although it was clear that underneath her calm, professional tone she was anything but. "That wording is far too convenient, considering how surprised you yourself were when we had a tie. You just revised the deal afterwards, right Yuuki-chan?"

She put on a patient, patronising smile, as if to say that she wouldn't be mad that Yuuki had tried to trick her. Her gaze was pleading, though, and the light blush that dusted her cheeks all but confirmed the doubt she held for her own theory. _Got her!_

"If you thought you could fool _me_ , Asunachi, you're mistaken!" she grinned triumphantly. "I have a recording of our conversation. I could play it to you, if you'd like."

And thus the final nail was hammered into the coffin. Asuna looked down, her eyes covered by the shadow of her fringe as her blush grew deeper and deeper. Eventually her embarrassment for having fallen for one of the oldest tricks in the book reached a fever pitch, and as she looked back up Yuuki could almost see tears in her eyes.

"F-fine, I get it! You got me, so I'll follow you, okay?!"

She hadn't expected quite so extreme a reaction, and honestly she felt a little bad for causing it, especially in public. As strange as it was to say, however, she couldn't say she didn't enjoy this outcome. After all, the whole point of this little exercise was to break down her facade, wasn't it? To look behind the cold, professional front built up from the horrors of the death game, and fish out from somewhere beneath it the 'real' Asuna.

Looking at the mortified mess that was Asuna now, though, Yuuki couldn't help but break out into a laugh. A loud, happy laugh that, in the depressed world of Aincrad, threatened to shake the sky.

Although she hadn't planned on it, she'd already halfway succeeded, hadn't she? In breaking Asuna out of her shell, that was. She closed her eyes, almost satisfied with the progress made. She could do this. She could save Asuna.

 _Well, no sense in leaving a job half-done._

"Well, come on, will you?" She beckoned, turning to walk in the direction of the teleport gate. "We don't actually have all day."

* * *

Asuna was mortified.

For more reason than one, actually. First, there was the obvious: for falling for Yuuki's trick, which had been one of the most simple, clichéd tricks in the book. Second, there was the fact she had actually thought to herself, upon hearing the deal, _she didn't explicitly say she needed to win, did she?_

Having been confident as she was of her win, however, she hadn't thought to call her out on it. And there lie the third reason; that she had been so confident, so proud of her ability that she didn't consider the possibility of her loss. To be fair, she had had reason to be confident in her victory, but even so it didn't excuse her carelessness; it was because she had gravely underestimated her opponent that brought the tie about in the first place.

It also didn't help that she had forgotten the little kink in the deal in the thrill of combat, which resulted in a rather spectacular meltdown upon being reminded of it later. _In public._ Needless to say, Asuna wasn't very happy about it, but at least she had the small mercy of the town square being relatively deserted at the time.

She would have liked to say she didn't have that luxury anymore at this time of day, but having followed Yuuki back to the Town of Beginnings… she sighed. It had been a while since she'd been here, but some things didn't change; the Town of Beginnings, or at least its town square, was devoid of passers-by, and the few players that _were_ out and about seemed to be devoid of soul. Asuna scoffed, not making much effort to hide her disdain beyond having her hood up, and even that was primarily to hide her lingering embarrassment as opposed to how she felt about the people here. As traumatising as the experience must have been, it had been a month since then; while she wasn't expecting anyone to get over it entirely, the people in this town didn't seem to be making an effort at all. In fact, it looked as if the populace had gotten even _more_ depressed since the last time she saw them, if that was even possible. She resisted the urge to groan; it felt like people didn't want to help themselves sometimes.

And then there was Yuuki, who Asuna wagered was the greatest contrast to the people in this town in the whole of Aincrad. The girl wasn't shuffling slowly forwards like the townsfolk. No, she was _skipping_ , presumably to some ridiculously peppy and upbeat rhythm.

"Jumping high from my dreams! No matter what sort of anxiety clinging upon me, I'll go ahead and shake it off!"

...seriously, what was with this girl? Singing and skipping along like that, one could almost believe she wasn't stuck in the same predicament as the rest of them. It ticked her off, somehow, although the irony of her irritation wasn't lost on her. Her brother always did say she was impossible to please; she couldn't stand the mopey populace, but give her the exact opposite in Yuuki and she still found herself annoyed.

 _Not like it's my fault that people have to act in extremes. Has no one heard of an in-between?!_

"We're here!" Yuuki called, but weirdly enough it didn't seem to be directed at her. Asuna frowned at the sight of the establishment before her.

"A...church?" She asked, narrowing her eyes at the girl who led her here. "You're not going to preach to me, are you?"

Yuuki looked over her shoulder, blinked, and laughed. "No, I'm not. At least, not yet," she winked, and giggled when Asuna rolled her eyes in response. "I'm hoping it won't have to come to that, since I'm not exactly cut out for it."

"You're not Christian?" Asuna asked.

"Well, I am, I'm just...not quite that familiar with the Bible. Whatever gave you the idea I was going to preach, though?"

The girl had the nerve to blink all innocently, and Asuna fought back the urge to sigh. "Well, why a church, then? If you're not going to be preaching, then what exactly did you bring me here for?"

"You'll see," Yuuki grinned back, before turning back to the door expectantly.

…

"I'm not...seeing anything?" Asuna prodded, sidling up beside her teammate.

"...hold on, I'm working on it." Yuuki replied. She took a deep breath… and began pounding at the door.

"Hey, is anyone home? I announced my arrival, you know? What happened to 'you're welcome back here any time, Yuuki-sama?'"

Asuna was prepared to wait a bit for a response, but was caught by surprise when one came almost instantaneously.

"What 'Yuuki-sama'? Yuuki-san is getting ahead of herself! Yuuki-san is welcome, but first she has to prove her identity by saying the secret password!"

 _A child?_

High-pitched and loud, the voice that came from behind the door was undoubtedly that of a child's. But why would a child be answering the door of a church?

"Huuuuuuhhh? What password?! You never told me anything about a password, Miki-chan!"

"That's right, Miki-sama only told Yuuki-san the password! If Miki-sama never told you the password, then you're not Yuuki-san!"

"Stop kidding around! You can recognise my voice, right? Open up, Miki! I have someone with me here!"

" 'Someone'? If it's not Kirito-san, then you're not Yuuki-san! And Yuuki-san knows that we already know Kirito, so you're not- oi, Sasha, just gimme a minute-"

Sounds of struggle emanated from within, before the door burst open to reveal a young, bespectacled woman in a long, navy blue dress that sort of resembled a nun's habit, minus the headdress. There was a small, whimpering lump situated slightly behind her.

"Apologies for that, Yuuki-san. Miki has been bored lately, and it's been doing wonders for her creativity. She stuffed swords into the pipes of the organ and proclaimed it the Throne of Blades, and decided to act as a gatekeeper for our 'White Brick Castle'. No one came to visit, though, so I guess she decided not to let you in so she could have some fun…"

Yuuki laughed, waving a hand to show she didn't mind. "Oh, you know kids. They're always so hyper…"

The lump behind the nun person's feet suddenly shot upward, revealing itself to be a young girl. Said girl squeezed past Sasha, and began to gesticulate wildly.

"Need I remind you, Yuuki-san, that I'm only a year younger than you are! That you would call me a kid is something I take issue with!"

"Oh, is that so?" Yuuki asked, looking down her shoulder at the other, much shorter girl, one hand cupped around the side of her mouth as she stage-whispered, "I'm sorry, you were so small that I didn't realise. Are you sure you're not a child, though? Age ain't nothin' but a number, and you sure do look the part of a kid."

The smaller girl stared, wide-eyed, before collapsing to the ground in a rather dramatic fashion. Bringing a hand up to her chest, she pointed vaguely in Yuuki's direction. "K-kuh...you got me this time, Yuuki, but I'll be back! You haven't seen the last… of Miki!" Saying thus, the girl collapsed onto her back, going "bleeehhh" in a mock death before slowly rolling her way back into the church.

"...what the fuck?" Asuna asked, before realising what she'd said, and mentally slapped herself for her crass, and frankly unbecoming language. Really, she was brought up better than that…

 _But still, my point stands._

Still giggling a bit at the other girl's antics, Yuuki finally turned to address her. "Asuna, this is Sasha. She's the 'owner' of this orphanage, and looks after the kids here."

Asuna blinked. "Orphanage?"

The nun - Sasha - stepped forward with a smile, bowing slightly as she spoke. "Yes, this building is currently being used as an orphanage, of sorts. The kids here obviously have families in the real world, but as long as they're here, their situation is sadly as good as that of an orphan's. I've taken it upon myself to give them a home, at least, since the inns run by NPCs cost money."

This was...an orphanage? Run by a player, no less. It was...different, to say the least, from any establishment Asuna had come across in the game thus far, and was a far cry from what she'd expected Yuuki to bring her to; although, she had to confess, she had had no idea at the time where Yuuki had planned to take her. In hindsight, maybe she should have asked…

 _Heartwarming and inspirational as this may be, however, I fail to see how this is supposed to change my outlook that Yuuki seems to have so much problem with. Did she seriously expect the knowledge of this place to change my core beliefs?_

Asuna was jolted out of her thoughts as Sasha addressed her. "You're a friend of Yuuki's, right?" she asked, to which Asuna responded to with a nod. "Please, come inside. I'd like to ask you to make yourself at home, but unless your home had a classroom and a half or so of children running amok, I doubt you'd be able," she laughed, before turning to walk back into the church. Yuuki followed suit, and beckoned for her to come in as well.

"Come on, Asunachi! It's not gonna do you any good if you just stay outside!"

Her eye twitched at the form of address, but nevertheless Asuna followed Yuuki inside.

And instantly she was mesmerized.

The church itself was fairly modest, without much interior decoration to speak of besides the large cross at the far end, flanked on both sides and likely attached to two large pillars, a colourful stained glass window with decorative bars situated behind it, curving along the cylindrical walls. To make up for its lack of decor, however, the church was remarkably spacious, with respectable room to move despite the rows of benches that faced the cross.

And it was among these benches that the children played, ducking and weaving between them as they enjoyed what seemed to be a bizarre, faction-based game of tag that somehow involved coloured sashes and flags. And it was _intense_ ; unlike in the real world, the system made it so that there was no difference in physical ability between children and adults. As such, the game unfolding before her looked nothing like a children's game; the kids were dashing, jumping and flipping between the benches to avoid their similarly superhuman friends. It was a delightful, if strange, sight, to see the children playing the way they did.

That wasn't what caught Asuna's attention, though. No, the thing that got her was the _sound._

The sound of _laughter._

It was...a myriad of things, all of them combining and meshing together to form something indescribable. It was...refreshing, to hear the tinkling of laughter in the absolute drought of happiness that seemed to pervade Aincrad. And yet 'refreshing' simply didn't do the sound justice; heavenly, perhaps? But that in turn didn't fully illustrate the familiarity she felt, as if in the laughter she managed to find something that had been lost to her.

It wasn't as if she hadn't heard laughter, or seen a smile for the entire month, of course. In fact, today alone she was sure Yuuki had a few genuine ones too. It was just… different, somehow. Like how a polite chuckle was different from a heartfelt laugh, so too did this laughter feel so much more _real_ , and _true_ \- although even that wasn't an apt enough comparison. It was like how laughing at something funny and laughing out of sheer joy felt entirely different, and -

Asuna shook her head. No, she simply couldn't comprehend it, not in language. Here lay a distinction that humanity hadn't found words to describe yet, but frankly Asuna thought she might prefer it that way. Otherwise, the magic of what she was hearing might fade into the cold void of human logic and understanding.

"Yuuki! It's Yuuki!" A boy who looked to be barely ten years of age suddenly cried. "Join our team, Yuuki! The red team's winning by two points!"

Yuuki laughed, and caught a blue sash in her hand as she strode to join in. "Don't you think it's a tad unfair to have me tip the scales like that? Eiko-chan, throw me a red sash, will you?" A small girl with face-paint and a bandana gave an affirmative 'ho!', before tossing a red sash forward, much to the blue team's chagrin.

She turned back to Asuna. Smiling wider than any time before, Yuuki extended a hand, red sash offered forwards in an open palm.

"You coming, or what?"

* * *

"I must say, Asuna-san, I hadn't expected you to join in on their game like that. Well, not quite so easily, anyway," Sasha chuckled lightly, setting down some tea for the younger girl. "I'd expected Miki to get involved, and heckle you for an hour or so before you finally gave in. Imagine my surprise when you joined in right off the bat!"

While the remark was in good nature, Asuna couldn't help but feel her cheeks burning up. "I'm not quite sure what came over me," she admitted. "Such a rowdy display would, under normal circumstances, not appeal to me in the slightest. I must confess I don't really understand what happened back there."

One moment she'd been enthralled by the laughter of children, and the next she was laughing with them. _Amongst_ them. It had been the strangest feeling, this barely conscious, almost magnetic pull towards the kids and their game of, Asuna had learnt, capture the flag. It had been intense, but not in the same way her duel with Yuuki had been; then, she had been constantly strategizing, reacting, and adapting. During the game, though...she honestly couldn't recall if there had been any brain activity at all. All she felt had been a rush of adrenaline, she expected, and now with it fading she was having trouble comprehending how much time she had spent having fun.

And she _had_ had fun, more fun than she could remember. Idly, she tried to recall the last time she felt anything remotely similar, but came up with a blank.

"The children do that, don't they? When I first set up this establishment - well, that may not be entirely accurate, since I barely repurposed this building - I had it in my mind that this was a duty I had to take care of. That was it. It was a responsibility I had to take, but nothing more than that. It didn't take very long before that outlook was corrected, though," Sasha smiled, likely reminiscing on some event or other that Asuna had no way of knowing about. "Now, I actually enjoy caring for them. Watching them play really does get to you, doesn't it? Their laughter truly is contagious."

"Yes...it really is, isn't it?" Asuna replied softly, barely cognizant of the world around her as she lapsed back into the stupour that had gotten hold of her when she first entered the church, and looked dreamily back to the children, who continued to play even as the sun began to set.

She was snapped out of this stupour as Yuuki walked in, announcing her presence with a loud yawn, stretching as she let it out. "It's about time we get going, Asunachi. Kirito has apparently managed to secure us both a team and lodgings in Tolbana, and he just sent me a message asking where we were."

A strange sensation seized Asuna, and it didn't take very long to diagnose the feeling as disappointment. She almost asked Yuuki if they couldn't stay a bit longer, before realising how much that sounded like what a 7 year old would say to their parents when leaving a particularly enjoyable birthday party.

"And your reply was…?" She asked instead.

"Nothing, actually. I'm sure he'll give me a call if he really needs to know, so for now I'll let the guy worry. A bit of worry every now and then is healthy, I think."

It probably wasn't, not when the boy in question had probably spent an eternity finding 3 more members, what with his obvious lack of social skills that even Asuna picked up on despite knowing him for barely a few minutes. Yuuki probably knew it, too, but likely couldn't resist messing with him a bit.

"Then I guess I might as well have the children stop their game, then. It's just about dinner time, anyway." Sasha stood up from her seat, before gasping. "Oh, I'm so sorry! I forgot to ask if you two would like to stay for dinner. It's awfully rude of me to mention preparing a meal just as you're about to leave. You two haven't had anything either, have you?"

"Don't sweat it, Sasha-san. Save the food for the kids; with how many you have to feed, it's a wonder you have enough col to raise them all," Yuuki waved, gently rejecting her offer.

"On the contrary, I've been receiving fairly generous donations from several successful adventurers. Add that to the low prices of ingredients around here, and home cooked meals are actually fairly affordable."

"Hold on, do you mean to say you prepare food for every child in this orphanage? Didn't you say there were at least 40 of them?" Asuna gaped.

"Forty-six, actually. But no, hardly. I do in fact prepare some of the food, but since this game only requires ingredients and a knife for a player to prepare food, I have a few of the children help with dinner preparations. It really shortens food preparation time when you have ten or so people to help you, especially if each one can slice a batch of vegetables with but a single touch of the knife," Sasha replied, before going back into the main hall of the church to call up her kitchen staff. As Sasha left the room, Yuuki turned to Asuna with a grin. "Though she says it's no trouble, I personally think we should go eat elsewhere. As easy as the cooking system in this game is compared to cooking in real life, there are still a number of fairly tedious steps involved, I think. Until she maxes out her cooking skill or something, preparing food for that many kids probably takes a toll on her. The kids that help her out try their best, but if someone messes something up, it's Sasha that helps them fix their mistake. I think it's best if we took our leave first, and have dinner elsewhere."

"Well I don't have any problem with that, but...are you sure we shouldn't help Sasha out a bit in the kitchen?" Asuna asked.

"You kidding? The kids probably cook better than I do. Heck, they _definitely_ cook better than I do, since how well one cooks is determined by numerical values in this game. And their numbers are no doubt bigger than mine, or yours, seeing as neither of us have cooked before." Yuuki pointed out, to which Asuna nodded in agreement.

"How did you know I've never cooked before, though? We just met...today, actually."

Yuuki snorted. "Please, just earlier today you didn't know how to apply cream to a bun. It doesn't take a detective to figure out you've never cooked before, at least not in-game."

Had it really been just today? It felt like so long ago that Yuuki had sat next to her on that fountain, showing her how to make a cream bun. Why hadn't she learnt how to do something so simple before then, she wondered.

 _No offense, Yuuki, but while I do appreciate your little tip, I didn't come here to eat good food._

She frowned. She...she'd said that, had she not? And she'd said it just earlier today, too. Funny how it felt so foreign now, that she'd so vehemently object to procuring cream to upgrade her meal a bit.

What changed?

Asuna pondered this as she and Yuuki left the orphanage, waving goodbye to Sasha and the kids, even getting glomped by Miki and a few others. Perhaps it was unfair to lump the rest of the kids' hugs in with Miki's though, as Miki had shot at them with the force of a missile, whereas Asuna could recall very well this one girl with light brown hair and twintails, who had seemed to get a bit flustered when she gave her one of the gentlest hugs she had experienced in recent memory.

She remained deep in thought even after teleporting back to Tolbana, and continued to pose herself question after question as they arrived back at a street lined with shops.

 _Was I inspired by how children half my age were able to find happiness in this from world? No… well, yes, but that just doesn't seem to be what caused my sudden change in perspective. Could it be that I simply got taken in by how much fun the kids were having, having been starved of any form of fun myself for the past month?_

No, that wasn't it either; or rather, she probably felt that way somewhere in there, but it didn't sound sufficient to suddenly cause her to shift her stance on life. At most, an experience like that would have been enjoyable, likely stuck with her and nagged at her mind for a while, but ultimately require additional input to have her rethink the philosophy she adapted for this world.

...could it be that she hadn't rethought that philosophy at all, but was still experiencing the immediate aftereffects of enjoying herself? Maybe if she just waited a bit, she'd be back to her old self again…

Before she could tread further down that path, however, Yuuki returned from one of the stores, holding a bun in each hand. Asuna didn't actually realise it until she received a soft tap on her shoulder and had a bun shoved in her face, that is.

"Aincrad to Asuna," the younger girl teased. "Come in, Asuna."

"Adapting sayings to our new world already, I see," Asuna replied, taking the bun out of her face and into her hands, before it was promptly shoved back towards her face again, but this time into her mouth.

"Really, though, what were you thinking about? You were so lost in thought you looked a bit like you were sleepwalking. Did you even realise I was gone?"

She hadn't, and the realisation of such made her face instantly turn crimson. That seemed to be a recurring theme as of late, and much to her annoyance it didn't seem like it was about to stop anytime soon.

"I was just thinking about today, I guess," Asuna replied. "I don't know why, but somehow I feel like I'm not even remotely the same as how I was this morning. Am I actually acting different, or do I just feel that way?"

Yuuki giggled in response, much to Asuna's confusion. "Of course you are, silly. You do realise just earlier this morning, you weren't even willing to speak to me unless spoken to, right? And even then it sounded like the words had to be dragged out of you by force."

She had been like that, hadn't she? By now Asuna was thoroughly stumped. She'd done a complete 180 on her personality in less than 18 hours, and she hadn't the slightest clue why. At a loss, she decided to pose the question to the girl walking alongside her.

"What did you do to me, Yuuki?" She asked. Then, perhaps because the heady, ephemeral feeling she had after spending a day with the children had yet to wear off, she joked, "did you slip some kind of drug into my tea while we were at the orphanage?"

Yuuki choked a bit on her bun, to which Asuna responded with a raised eyebrow. "Wait, you didn't actually - "

"No, of course - kuh! - not," Yuuki replied in between coughs. She hacked away for another ten seconds or so, before finally getting a hold of herself. "Why is it possible to choke in this game, anyway? At any rate, I only started choking because of a thought I remembered having earlier this morning. About how it would've been pretty creepy if I had asked you to follow me to an undisclosed location like I did today, only if I weren't a cute, trustworthy 14 year-old."

It was Asuna's turn to choke, although thankfully it was on air instead of bread. "Wait, you're fourteen? Shouldn't you technically be living in that orphanage?"

"Shut up, SAO said it was made for kids 13 years old or older, so I technically make the cut. Miki and a few others do too, actually, but I suppose adventuring in a death game isn't for everyone. That aside," Yuuki said, diverting the subject back to its origins, "I don't think I really did anything to you. I just showed you what I wanted to, and whatever changes that happened after were all your doing." She raised her hands in mock innocence. "If you start getting headaches or diarrhea, the Yuuki Foundation of something-or-other will not be held responsible. Whatever changes you may be experiencing are not, in any legally prosecutable way, my fault whatsoever."

Asuna snorted a bit at that one, before slapping a hand over her mouth and nose in horror, much to Yuuki's amusement. "I'm serious, though," Asuna said as she sought to forget such an undignified sound ever came from her, "you brought me to a church, and when I left that church I walked out a different person. And I just can't seem to understand why. What was it exactly that you had in mind when you brought me there? Did you hope I'd be inspired by Sasha's calling, a spot of light in a world full of depressed people? Or did you hope the kids would bring joy to my heart through their smiles, or something?"

"Those two are a bit cliché, aren't they?"

"I'm grasping at straws, here, Yuuki," Asuna drawled. Truly, she was at a loss. That she couldn't seem to understand or even comprehend what was going on with herself...it felt strange. If she was honest, it scared her, just a bit. Her vision began to blur, and Asuna cursed inwardly.

"Well, I suppose the inspiration thing did cross my mind, but I don't think I really expected that to hit home," Yuuki replied hurriedly, caught off-guard by the conversation's sudden shift in tone. For before her now was a girl, no longer in pain, but hopelessly lost and confused. _She doesn't understand in the slightest what she's feeling right now._

"Everyone probably watched some form of inspirational YouTube video before, but I don't think all that many are struck hard enough to change quite so drastically, or quickly as you have." Yuuki paused, choosing her next few words carefully. "I suppose I was placing my bets on a little something you said this afternoon, actually."

"Oh?" Asuna sniffed, blinking away the sudden and frankly unwelcome tears. "And what was that?"

"I said smiling in the face of adversity would be the biggest slap you could give this game, to which you replied something along the lines of 'but there isn't much to smile about, is there?' I suppose that after I heard that, I just sort of decided I'd give you something to smile about, and work from there."

" _...I got it. So, all you need is something to smile about, is that right?"_

"...so you did," Asuna smiled, wiping away the last of her sudden tears with her sleeve. "So, what, did you just sort of hope the thought of Sasha and her merry kids would be enough to bring a smile to my face, and try to worm your way into my heart from there? Still doesn't explain why it worked quite so well, though."

"Well, I wanted to give you something to be happy about, yes, but it wasn't something nearly as complicated as that. I just knew the kids knew how to have fun, and thought that if maybe they could drag you into their fun, you'd… I dunno. Get better." Yuuki shrugged.

"After all, from your little call for help in the whole 'nothing to smile about' statement, I sort of gathered you were never actually opposed to being happy and stuff. You just didn't think there was any point trying to enjoy living in this world, seeing as how nobody else seemed to be doing it. I guess I just hoped that showing you some people did enjoy themselves, plus letting you experience fun again for the first time in what probably feels like forever, I could get you thinking about enjoying this world for what it is," Yuuki paused, uncertain if she should continue. Eventually, she did.

"Our new home, for however long it takes before we can return to our old one."

Asuna tried to digest what she had been told, but in the process began to tear up again. What - so was that really it? She almost scoffed, but couldn't as a sob racked her body. It was ridiculous. To think, that all this time, she hadn't understood her own philosophy. Thinking back on it, at no point did 'stand strong in the face of adversity' or 'don't let the game get to me' actually state she had to reject the joys of this world. It was just...after all the suffering she saw and endured, to follow such a line of thought had her naturally categorise the game as an enemy. Thus, all she ever saw the game as was a huge obstacle to overcome; put all your time, all your soul into beating it, and whatever you do don't let it beat you, because no doubt it would try to at every turn. That had been what she'd really been thinking all along, but had only now realised it after successfully putting it into words.

Even through her tears, Asuna couldn't help but laugh. It truly was ridiculous, and unpacking just how ridiculous it was in her mind only made her laugh harder. Miraculously, every word that Yuuki had said was true. Though she didn't realise it, she had in fact been yearning to be happy; a human being could only go so long without joy, and inside Asuna had been starved of it. It was just that everything and everyone she saw, added to her worldview that the entire game was an enemy, poisoned her mind with the belief that she wasn't _supposed_ to experience joy, no matter how much she yearned for it. That to experience joy was to break a taboo.

Today, the children had drawn her in with laughter that Asuna had been wanting to hear for a month now, but what had really stuck was the fun _she_ had had. For a few hours, she was allowed the joy she longed for, and with the experience came a rethinking of her beliefs; if I'm happy now, and nothing bad has happened as a result, surely there's no reason to continue rejecting the joy I yearn for?

It felt so stupid that all she needed all this time was to see that there was nothing wrong with feeling happy, which in of itself should have been self-evident. And to think it'd taken something as melodramatic as a _duel_ with Yuuki just to convince her to give happiness a try. Yet for once, her stupidity didn't make her face turn red. No, she was far too relieved to care. Finally, finally she understood what had been wrong with her, why she'd been acting and feeling the way she did for the whole month. Really, she was just as bad as those players she'd criticised in the Town of Beginnings, wasn't she? Not only did she refuse to help herself, but she had also rejected others who tried to help her. Quite the hypocrite, she was, to hold such disdain and cast judgement on the other players when she had frankly been worse.

As the laughter died down, Asuna squeezed the last of her tears out of her eyes, and wiped them aside with her sleeve. Thankfully, Yuuki had stopped walking a bit behind her, so that she couldn't see her crying face. God, she was a mess now, wasn't she? Asuna chuckled, and made to bite into her bun to calm herself. Just as she was about to take a bite, however, she stopped short.

"Say, Yuuki," she called, her voice a bit raspy from all the cry-laughing she had done.

"What is it?" Yuuki tested, likely at a loss. Asuna _had_ just had a laughing fit through tears after all.

"Do you…" Asuna began, turning around to face her friend, "...happen to have any more of that cream?"

Yuuki paused, for a moment, before a huge grin broke out across her facial features. "You bet!" She replied, opening her inventory.

* * *

 **So, just a couple of things. Firstly...**

 **ApologiesforthedelayImsosorry**

 **Though the chapter is longer, the delay was honestly 30% real life things, and 70% procrastination.**

 **I have games that require farming, okay? Also, YouTube.**

 **That aside, though, I would like to point out a few things. Some of you may have noticed that Yuuki is 14, whereas Asuna, while her age hasn't been explicitly stated, isn't. I decided to up their ages a bit - two years in fact - since otherwise Yuuki would be _twelve_. Needless to say, Kirito and everyone else received age buffs too. In the anime they looked mostly the same before and after SAO, though, so you can keep your mental images of what they look like.**

 **Second, you may realise that I've taken liberties with the names of swords skills. Simply put, they were never explicitly name din the anime so I never had much attachment to said names, and while some will be kept untouched - Starburst Stream is an obvious example - for the most part I will be creating and naming my own sword skills. I may have taken liberties with the mechanics of sword skills and stuff too, what with the redirection of certain strikes, plus how Yuuki was only unable to move her sword arm during her pause, but was able to dive under Asuna's attack. Honestly, I'll freely admit I'm making these changes just because its easier for me to write action that way, since I really don't think I'm good enough of an author to work within canon's restrictions. I do hope I was able to keep the fight entertaining, but for the most part the two combatants, however skilled, are still relatively low-level. I'll be coming up with crazier skills for them to use later in the game, and yes I do plan on having fights that take into account terrain and surroundings later on.**

 **Thirdly, and on a less important note, the song Yuuki sings is actually the chorus of Crossing Field, aka SAO's first opening. I considered Courage, aka the op for Mother's Rosario instead, but Crossing Field's lyrics were laughably apt for Yuuki's overly positive singing, so I went with it in the end.**

 **Lastly, and most importantly tbh, is that... as much as I hate to say it, I kinda want reviews. I've been kind of against asking for them, since it feels like I'm seeking attention, but honestly I would appreciate a review or two. Preferably one worshiping my work, talent and very existence, but hey, you can't have anything. Leaving a fav or follow would be great too! Don't feel pressured to review or whatever if you don't want to, though, but if you've wanted to say something but were too shy to breach the silence, please do go ahead and comment. I'd like some feedback, at least, be it constructive criticism or just your thoughts on the story so far. At the risk of sounding bigoted, to be perfectly honest I'm actually a bit disappointed with the turnout, lol. Especially since unlike my last attempt at fanfiction this time the chapters largely met my expectations, and thus when I failed to get even a single review I must confess to a bit of pain. At any rate, I fully recognise this is due to my lack of ability as a writer, but I do need comments in order to rectify whatever errors I may have made. I have only one friend who has actually read and given me comments, but even then he mostly focused on grammar and stuff. I've been contemplating rewriting the first chapter for a while now, just to see if the slow start was what turned people off from the story. I'd really much rather not do it, though, since random grammar and formatting oversights and errors aside, I did quite like the chapter.**

 **Hopefully, if nothing else, this chapter was a step up from the previous ones. It's longer, for one, and I cringe less while reading it. Again, please do let me know your thoughts on the story, because I would really appreciate it. Any ideas for future chapters would be welcome to, because if I'm honest I've only planned out the broader outline of the story, with a number of punchy moments and an overarching plotline that basically inspired me to write this story in the first place, but honestly, after the next chapter I'll be winging it for several chapters, until we get to the bits I planned, I guess.**


	5. A Fateful Meeting

**I have returned! Just gonna be transparent here: I began work on this chap the day after I posted chapter 4, which is when I was totally ecstatic from seeing the reviews you guys wrote. Thanks for that, by the way; it usually feels like something small, but as a writer seeing people like what I write is more heartwarming than I can properly describe. If I began work so early though, why did I take so long? Honestly, I'm not entirely sure either; it might have something to do with how this is the _fourth flipping attempt_. The amount of text I cut out from previous versions and pasted over to a separate doc in case I wanted to use it is actually larger than the number of words this chapter actually contains, so...yeah. It's not like I'm new to edits either, but this was probably the first time my first and final drafts for a chapter looked quite so...different.**

 **On the bright side, the first draft included part of the Illfang boss battle, and I only cut it out because I wanted more build up and the build up was too long for the actual fight to be tagged on after it; in other words, part of the next chapter is already written, though obviously I'll have to revise parts of it. Which might take a while...having 6,000 words already written doesn't mean much if the text I throw away can reach 10,000, after all. I never thought of myself as a perfectionist, but damn...**

 **That aside, it's not as if this chapter is polished to perfection because of the rewrites. As I said, it was less of editing to make things perfect and more of redoing the entire thing again so I can have the proper set up for the next chapter, so I apologise if the chapter wasn't worth the wait. The most painful part is probably how this is my school holiday period, so I've actually had more time to write than I'll have in a while...**

 **Eh. I still fully intend on completing this story, though, and right now I'm just hoping the words come to me easier when I reach the points in the story that had inspired me to write this in the first place. But until then, I thank you all for being patient with me, as well as for giving me those reviews I asked for. As I said, they really do mean a lot, so, uh...keep leaving them? Please?**

* * *

Yuuki leapt in, slashing wildly, only for her strikes to be deflected by minimal movements of her opponent's spear, sparks flying as her blade crashed against the metal shaft. The front end of the polearm jerked up, almost catapulting her sword out of her grip with the sharp movement; instead, it sent Yuuki's entire sword arm swinging upwards, a light pain ringing in her shoulder as it did. The spear then jabbed towards her face, but Yuuki batted it aside with her free hand, her hair blowing out behind her as the weapon sailed harmlessly over her shoulder. Not for the first time, Yuuki found herself imagining how cool a shot like that would look in an anime - it'd happened, she thought, yesterday during her duel with Asuna as well, and to be honest she felt like a total badass when it did. Though, it'd probably look infinitely better if she had long hair. Huh, maybe she'd invest in that…

 _Focus, Yuuki!_

Her sword arm was still raised upwards, and she didn't think she was quick enough to cut down in time to ward her attacker off, at least not when the shaft of the polearm was right beside her head. She couldn't exactly retreat backwards, either, since spears were, like, long - and so she hooked her right arm around the shaft, trapping the weapon in the crook of her elbow. Dropping her sword from it and catching it in her left, she swung it diagonally upwards, aiming for the hip; she wasn't ambidextrous, but handedness was hardly required for swinging a sword at something in front of you.

A leg shot up, catching the blow on an armoured shin before kicking out, her blade this time flying clean out of her grip, clattering to the floor a ways behind her. She cursed, trying to return the favour by twisting the spear out of her opponent's grip, but the guy who wielded it had it held in two hands. _Well_ , _two can play at that game_ , she grimaced, and before the guy could extract his weapon from her grip she grabbed hold of it with her now empty left hand, tugging at it in an attempt to pull him off balance.

Her opponent was prepared, though, and braced himself against her tug. He tugged back, but rather than risk it trying to out-strength him Yuuki simply let go, the spear-wielder this time staggering back a bit. He recovered quickly, but the little breathing time Yuuki had managed to earn was just enough for her to dive back, and reclaim her weapon. Her opponent chased after her, however, stooping low to jab towards her face and upper torso before she could properly return to her feet. Unable to stand up in time, she tucked herself in and rolled back to create more distance, narrowly avoiding the spear, which she kicked up to push away.

Pushing herself to her feet, a burst of red alerted her to imminent danger, and with a cry the spearman thrust his weapon forward, crimson energies enveloping the tip as it approached her at a frightening speed. She twisted out of the way but winced as the spear struck her side, a large red gash appearing to mark the injury. Her health fell, but remained in the green - it was a good 20% or so higher than her opponent's, but having stalemated Asuna in a first hit match yesterday Yuuki felt a little disappointed she'd taken damage at all.

The spear's glow not having receded, Yuuki took the chance to lash out with her sword, giving her opponent two large gashes in the chest. The boy grunted, and tried to leap back - but the position his upper body was stuck in due to the skill made the jump awkward, and unable to gain sufficient distance he fell prey to Yuuki's 'Brandish', her blade shining purple as it once again cut into the spearman, as well as his health bar. The healthy green bar turned sickly, before falling into yellow - and with that, a screen appeared above their heads, proclaiming the duel over, Yuuki emerging victorious.

Some clapping started up beside them. "Beautiful," someone said, "absolutely beautiful."

Yuuki sheathed her sword, and stooped down to help her opponent up. He thanked her politely, accepting his defeat with an almost gentlemanly grace. He narrowed his eyes at the man who spoke, however.

"Nice to see you enjoyed seeing me get my ass kicked, Agil," he scowled, though it didn't sound like he meant it. "For what it's worth, I let my guard down at the start; not to say she wouldn't have won anyway, but I'd have lasted longer if she hadn't blitzed my health down in the first few seconds."

"Hey now, you know I didn't mean it like that," the larger man chuckled, raising his arms in innocence. "I'd have probably lost in less than half the time you held out for. I myself didn't fare too well in my match against her partner, either; that's just the gap in our skills, I suppose."

"Don't say that," Yuuki laughed. "You guys aren't half bad yourselves. Kirito is a beta tester, and I was lucky enough to have his guidance since the beginning of the game. What's more, our levels are higher; I'd say that given those circumstances, your losses were less due to fault on your part, and more because the odds were stacked against you in the first place."

It sounded patronising, but it was true; lose they had, but their new teammates had performed admirably in their duels against them. Turns out Kirito had quite the discerning eye; say what you would about his social skills, but the teammates he had found proved that he didn't let it get in the way of finding good people, at least.

"That's all well and good, but I don't think we'll be taking you two on again anytime soon," Agil laughed. "Well, I won't. Zest, on the other hand, might actually enjoy getting beaten up by a young woman like yourself."

"I'll have you know I'm not a masochist," the spearman from before chipped in, identifying himself as the one called 'Zest'. Yuuki hadn't registered his name until now, actually, since she'd been a bit groggy when introductions had been made earlier in the morning. "It's one of my only redeeming qualities. Truly, Agil, it hurts to know that my own teammate would view me as one," the teen sighed dramatically. "Yuuki-chan, you wouldn't mind lending me your shoulder to lean on, would you? This revelation has thoroughly shattered my worldview, and I require support lest I blow over like a leaf in the breeze; support that can only be obtained from a strong, yet beautiful woman such as yourself."

"Go right ahead," Yuuki replied - only to step aside when the boy actually leaned back. He didn't fall, however, catching himself quickly with his spear. Bending slightly over backwards, he looked up at her with a sorrowful gaze.

"Alas, it seems that I have fallen for your superior cunning. My heart is broken, yet I cannot help but admire - woah!"

Yuuki kicked his spear out from under him, and without the polearm to support his weight Zest fell onto his back. The guy took it well though, laughing it off with a cheekiness not unlike her own. Was this what it felt like to have a fun-loving partner? She looked over to Kirito, who silently stood at the side, observing their antics. He gave her a long-suffering lookwhen she caught his gaze. _This is what I deal with when I'm with you,_ it seemed to say.

He owed her some thanks for all the joy she no doubt brought into his life.

"That wasn't very nice, Yuuki," A new voice rebuked lightly. Yuuki felt her heart stop - and then it soared. "Letting him fall was one thing, but kicking his spear aside is another entirely. You should-"

Whatever she should have done was left unsaid, the words lost and fading into the forever unknown. Such was the fate of many a poor word, their lives cut short before they could even begin by the sudden and unpredictable glomping of their speaker. "Asunachi~!" Yuuki wailed. "You came back! When you were gone from your room this morning, I thought you left us for good!"

Quite obviously caught off-guard by the fourteen year-old spluttering into her bosom, Asuna's calm demeanor folded and died quickly. "H-hey, Yuuki, knock it off!" she struggled, trying to pry the younger girl off of her before they could fuse. Yuuki only latched on tighter. "Didn't I send both you and Kirito messages telling you that I went out for a bit? My menu said that they'd been sent, so you should have received it…"

"I didn't read it," Yuuki answered flatly. "Too much fancy language in the preview. When I see fancy language early in the morning, my brain automatically shuts off and forcefully ignores the medium in which said language was found." Clearly, Asuna was the one at fault here.

Asuna sweatdropped. "Putting the questionable modus operandi of your brain aside, I'm quite sure my message started with 'Good morning, Yuuki'..."

"Irrelevant!" Yuuki exclaimed, causing Asuna to jump - or spasm, since she was still stuck in Yuuki's iron grasp - in shock. "Either way, you left without us! We're a _team_ , Asuna! We worry if you head out alone - what would we do if something happened to you in our absence?"

Her voice softened as she spoke, and with the change in tone was a change in Asuna's facial expression. It went from flustered and confused to remorseful in less than a second, the girl even looking a bit horrified by what she now thought she had done.

"I-I'm sorry, Yuuki. I didn't realise - "

"...pfft." It proved too much for Yuuki to handle, and once the first chuckle escaped her it quickly escalated into full-blown laughter. Asuna's face shifted once again to confusion, which only prompted Yuuki to giggle some more. "Geez, Asuna, I'm just messing with you! God, you're so easy," she chuckled. Asuna took the revelation rather well she thought, which was to say she started blushing furiously as the reality that she had just been thoroughly played sank in. Huh...something similar happened yesterday too, didn't it?

"So, where did you go?" she asked, ignoring the icy glare Asuna was sending her way. "You said you weren't exiting the safe zone in your message, but you never did mention where you went. What took you so long?" The message had been sent at around 7.40, after all, and it'd been almost three hours since then.

Asuna didn't answer immediately. When she did, it was with her gaze elsewhere, her head turned to the side as she scratched her cheek sheepishly. "Not anywhere in particular," she answered. "I just...sort of wandered, I guess."

For three whole hours? It was certainly possible, she supposed, since Asuna likely hadn't actually taken a look around the city yet, having been uninterested in it for the most part up till yesterday. Yuuki was almost ready to accept her answer, before she caught sight of something; a small, yet unmistakable spot of blue under Asuna's ear. It looked like paint...and as far as she knew, there was really only one place where paint was applied to people's faces. Usually in stripes, or whiskers along the cheeks… that extended all the way to the ears, if Miki had her way.

Yuuki smiled.

Frankly, she was relieved. As unlikely as it was, a part of her had been afraid that Asuna would withdraw back into her shell of sorts after opening up to her the night before. Unlikely, sure, but at the very least it was possible that Asuna had only opened up before due to the confusing mess of emotions she was feeling at the time. Seeing the oppressive aura around and over her gone felt like a massive achievement for Yuuki, and she made a mental note to celebrate with a cream bun later.

"A-anyway, who would these people be?" Asuna not-so-subtly changed the subject, gesturing at the three players she didn't recognise. Zest, who'd been watching the scene play out from his seat on the floor, took his cue and leapt to his feat.

"The very best of mornings, my lady." Perhaps sensing he was in the presence of a higher being, he bowed, like a butler or steward of some kind speaking to a member of nobility. "My name is Zest, and I am but a humble spearman who will be assisting you in the raid later today. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance." Saying thus, he gently cupped a hand around Asuna's, bringing it up to his lips and kissing it before she could react. Asuna's blush returned full force, and Yuuki snickered.

"My name is Agil," the large man introduced, looking quite amused by what he had just seen but choosing not to comment on it. "And this girl over here is Valkyrie. Like my teammate over there mentioned, we'll be working together for the raid later. Take care of us newbies, alright?"

"A pleasure to meet you. Please take care of me as well." Asuna said, bowing politely. "I must apologise for being late. I wasn't aware that we would be meeting up before the raid."

"Did Diavel not say to get acquainted with our teammates?" a white-haired girl with an eyepatch asked, and for the first time Yuuki registered her presence. "Surely it would have been natural to assume a meeting would take place today, since there wasn't one yesterday." She'd been standing next to Agil the whole time but having not spoken up till then she'd managed to avoid Yuuki's perception. Heck, even _after_ speaking up, Yuuki wasn't entirely sure if the girl was there or not. Her voice was soft, impossibly so - and it probably didn't help her case that she delivered her words in a monotone, or at least as close to one as possible without sounding super unnatural.

 _W-what amazing presence concealment_ , Yuuki shivered. _Maybe there's a hidden class system, and her's is ninja._

"Well, yes," Asuna replied, apparently less surprised by the presence of the other girl than Yuuki was. "It is natural that we'd meet up before the raid takes place, I guess. I suppose it slipped my mind."

Asuna made to bow again in apology, but Valkyrie dismissed it with a wave of her hand. "There is no need for apologies. I simply sought to understand the reason for your being late. No harm was done; people forget things all the time, or so I am told."

"Geez, enough of all this formality!" Yuuki cried, causing a few of her companions to jump in surprise. "We're not business partners, you know? We're _teammates._ In a raid group. Since we're gonna be kicking ass together, I say we loosen up a bit, you two especially," Yuuki nodded sagely, pointing an accusatory finger at the two overly formal girls. "Now, draw your weapons! You shall get to know each other through the medium of combat."

Though caught by surprise, both girls immediately moved to draw their weapons, only to stop when Agil spoke up. "Now, now, while I'm sure we'd all like to watch a battle between high-level combatants such as yourselves, I think we'd be best off having a break for breakfast first," the large man smiled. "Since we're all here, we might as well chat around some food, no? Besides, I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm starving! Especially after getting tossed around by Kirito over there," he laughed, looking over to the boy in question to show he meant no offense. "The man is a monster, I tell you...though I suppose skills like that are what we approached him for anyway."

"Wait, hold on a minute," Yuuki interjected, having caught onto something. "Did you just say that _you guys_ approached _him_? Because last time I checked, _somebody_ said they'd be working on their social skills by looking for teammates." She looked pointedly over to her partner, who stared blankly in front of him, not meeting her gaze.

"Oh, he _was_ asking around," Agil waved offhandedly. "It's just that we approached him when another group rejected him."

Huh. Not what she expected, for sure...but hey, at least he tried. Yuuki nodded, satisfied that her partner at least made the effort -

"Don't lie to her, Agil," Zest drawled. "He was loitering at a corner of the amphitheatre, just sort of staring at the masses. We recognised him as the guy you brought up as a counter-example to that Kibaou guy's argument, Yuuki-chan, so we decided to go and ask him if he wanted to form a team. He accepted, and here we are."

Yeah, that sounded about right.

"And for a second, I was so proud of you…"

"There's no need to be so dramatic," Kirito winced, finally turning to face her. "Besides, my job was to get us teammates, and I did. Surely that they'd approached me instead of the other way around shouldn't matter…"

It didn't, really, since they both knew he'd only volunteered so she'd be free to deal with Asuna. That he'd managed to get them a team was honestly satisfactory...but it wasn't as if he had to know that, was it?

"It _matters_ , because this means you didn't do anything," Yuuki accused, jabbing a finger in her partner's chest. "If you think about it, _I_ was the one who did the recruiting, since I advertised your presence to everyone gathered there. All you really did was say yes to them when approached."

"...cut to the chase. What are you getting at, Yuuki?"

Yuuki blinked at her partner's suddenly narrowed eyes. She hadn't actually wanted to do anything more than tease the guy, but seeing his gaze of suspicion Yuuki thought she might as well play into his expectations, and get something out of it. "Seeing as I helped you do your recruiting job...don't you think you owe me some kind of reward?" She twirled on the spot, before stopping and making a show of putting her hand on her chin, stroking an imaginary beard. She could hear Asuna giggling in the background, and silently congratulated herself. "Since we happen to be heading for breakfast… do you think it'd maybe be possible for you to treat me to a meal?"

* * *

Kirito sighed inwardly - something he felt he was doing a lot of as of late - as his partner rejoiced beside him, having secured herself a free meal which she would undoubtedly take full advantage of. Heck, it hadn't been 5 seconds since they'd sat down, and already she was flipping through the menu furiously, the pages a blur as she probably looked for the most expensive dish she could find. He supposed he could always say he had managed both the gathering of supplies and the procurement of housing to make up for his failure in asking around for teammates, but then again he didn't really mind treating her to a little something extra. As much as she harped on how it had really been her who had brought this team together - which Kirito acknowledged, and thoroughly appreciated since it meant he didn't have to actually go around _talk_ to people - in his mind this meal was a small show of his appreciation for what she'd done for Asuna.

He didn't know where she'd brought her and what she'd done, but whatever it was it had worked like a charm. Looking at Asuna now, he could barely recognise the girl as the same one who he'd met yesterday; the small smile she had on now only further served to accentuate the fact, though even if it were absent he was pretty sure the change in aura was drastic enough to be noticeable. It'd been pretty jarring, to be honest, and he'd actually not noticed Yuuki talking to him - or rather, getting on his case for not asking around - at first, having been rather preoccupied wrapping his head around the concept of a happy, cheery Asuna...who had, _just a day ago_ , mind you, been more akin to some kind of robot than a human being. Idly, Kirito wondered how things would have turned out had he been the one to try his hand at helping her instead: he supposed he'd have likely tried to prod her in the right direction, constantly accommodating her and generally just letting her experience some of the simple pleasures Aincrad had to offer. It might have been hubris to think so, but he was fairly certain that method would have worked, in time; Asuna seemed like a logical, rational kind of person after all, who would have probably re-evaluated her views on life had she been provided enough evidence to suggest it prudent to do so.

Of course, even under the most ideal of circumstances his modus operandi would have likely taken quite a bit of time to rehabilitate her. Such were most of his solutions to problems, anyway, always erring on the side of caution at the cost of any semblance of efficiency. After all, what use was talking sense into her if it had a fair chance of making her close herself off? What use was showing her the beautiful sunset of Aincrad in the hopes that she'd come to appreciate it, if all she might see in that beauty were the bloodied skies of launch day? Truly, for every method he could think of there were at least three separate situations that could arise that would make everything worse, and a great deal of others that framed the possible events as simply pointless…though that could be due in part to his crippling lack of self-confidence, as well as his penchant for worrying. Either way, he didn't see himself taking many drastic actions in a matter so delicate.

He supposed, then, that it had been a good call - well, given the results it was probably the best decision he'd ever made in his life, to have Yuuki confront Asuna instead. The girl wasn't much for tact, but quite helpfully wasn't all blunt honesty either: while bluntness was always her go-to choice, whenever it was required she'd tiptoe around the person involved for a bit, before headbutting them with her honesty right when it looked like she had an opening. This probably made her a good match against the immovable object - since he could pretty much tell from a glance that she was the insanely stubborn type - that Asuna had been the day before, but in truth Kirito doubted even Yuuki could have gotten through to Asuna with mere words; what worked was probably that place Yuuki had wanted to take Asuna to, though he hadn't had the chance to ask Yuuki where that place was in the end. He didn't think they'd noticed, but he'd actually been in the vicinity when they had their little chat before their duel...and while he had been rather far away, he could at least hear Yuuki's side of the conversation clear enough to get the gist of things, since she'd been pretty loud during it.

Not like he'd let her find out, of course, since he'd only really been there when he sort of went on hiatus from looking for teammates, instead choosing to go and get some supplies, all while promising himself that he'd go find them the players they needed... _eventually_.

Perhaps it had been a good thing that he had decided to put off recruiting duty though, Kirito thought, since it had made him privy to something...well, it wasn't anything worrying, exactly, but it sure as hell worried _him_ , so he supposed the word fit well enough.

" _'Even if I get killed by a monster, I don't want to lose to this game'? I mean, I might be misinterpreting something here, Asuna-san...but from the way you said it, it sounds like you don't care if you die, so long as you can keep your pride at the end."_

Logically, Yuuki had probably been unnerved, or maybe even a little pissed, at Asuna's words, which Kirito gathered must have been her philosophy, or something. Logically, Yuuki's sudden change of tone could have easily been caused by Asuna's disregard for her own life rubbing her the wrong way - he could certainly see his partner taking offense to that, since she always seemed to be enjoying life, cherishing every second of it, so to learn Yuuki didn't approve of others downplaying the value of their own lives wouldn't surprise him at all. Yes, logically, that should have been it.

And yet, Kirito grumbled to himself as the girl who was causing him this worry waved a waiter NPC over to place what was undoubtedly going to be the single most expensive order anyone could place in this restaurant, the whole exchange had rubbed _him_ the wrong way, especially when it came to the strange aura Yuuki had around her upon hearing Asuna's response to her accusation, which Kirito regrettably enough didn't manage to hear. The very atmosphere around her had seemed to dip during the pause that had followed, before it rather abruptly dissipated when Yuuki opened her mouth once again to reply.

This wasn't the first time Kirito had caught sight of a side of her that lay largely dormant under her cheerful exterior. Rather, it was the second...the first some being the day when the sky bled crimson. Obviously, he'd been preoccupied with his own thoughts and emotions when the fateful announcement was made, but even then he had had enough presence of mind to actually see what he was looking at - and what he'd been looking at was the girl he now called her partner.

Except the girl he saw that day wasn't anything like the partner he had come to know in the past month. Well, sure, the same could technically be said of literally every player in Aincrad, but ignoring the given shock and horror that came with the revelation that they'd been trapped in a game, the Yuuki on launch day had still felt a little...off, especially now that Kirito had spent enough time around her to know what she was usually like.

She'd been...well, _off_ was really the best he could manage. Like within her lay a veritable maelstrom of thoughts and emotions the likes of which he feared he couldn't fathom. There was fear, anger, confusion...but yet he also saw shades of, he thought, joy. He was surprised he'd been able to pinpoint that, but perhaps the task was made simpler just by comparing her expression to those around her, who all wore similar looks of the aforementioned fear, anger and confusion. Joy had been the only thing that stood out to him, what with how it contrasted with the sea of hopeless, horrified faces, but again it had been only one of the many tumultuous emotions that had imposed themselves on Yuuki's being.

There could have been a million reasons for her reaction, but all of them were undoubtedly linked at some level to Yuuki's personal life in the real world, so Kirito felt no need to intrude. Besides, he'd been struggling with his own thoughts at the time: who was to say he hadn't completely misread what she was feeling? Heck, despite the horror and fear Kirito registered somewhere deep down that, in a small way, he'd been relieved he could escape from Sugu, as well as the fact that he'd fucked up their relationship ever since finding out they weren't real siblings. Maybe he'd even projected a few of his feelings onto the girl he'd been looking at, which wouldn't have been the dumbest thing human emotion had made him do before; the aforementioned fuck-up was one of them. And thus, for a myriad of reasons, he'd written off the side of Yuuki he'd seen that day as either a figment of his imagination, or none of his business. She'd shown no sign of it ever again in the month that followed, anyway, so the former explanation had more or less won him over at this point.

 _Except..._ he sighed to himself, this had only been true until yesterday. And yet again, Kirito reminded himself of the various different explanations that could have been behind her reaction, and how solid each of them were. It was entirely possible, no, extremely likely that whatever he thought he'd seen on launch day had been nothing more than empty speculation borne from his, at the time, rather disturbed mind, and that any correlation he saw between what he saw yesterday and on launch day was entirely the work of his overactive imagination. He fully recognised that an alternative to this explanation was, while not impossible, highly improbable, at least compared to the likelihood of him really overthinking it.

And _yet_ , Kirito cursed, he was just paranoid enough to consider the possibility that there was something more to it. What if, and this was a huge _what if_ , Yuuki's sudden outburst yesterday was a symptom of whatever had taken hold of her on launch day? What if whatever Asuna had triggered wasn't - or wasn't _just_ \- ire that stemmed from an innate disapproval of her outlook on life, but something _more_?

As his field of vision was completely eclipsed by the monstrous stuffed boar that the waiter NPC had brought to their table, however, Kirito dismissed it all as meaningless paranoia, putting on an exasperated smile as his partner absolutely _cackled_ with glee at the dish he was going to have to pay for, the other players seated around the table giving him pitying looks even as Asuna tried to return the food, scolding Yuuki for possibly bankrupting her own partner. This wasn't the first time he'd wasted precious brain power entertaining these ludicrous theories of his, after all, and the last time he did it he'd distanced himself from his sister - because blood related or not, she _was_ his sister, though he wished he could have come to this conclusion much, much sooner - simply because he worried that their true relationship had been hidden from them for a reason, and that by finding out he had already jeopardised it somehow. Needless to say, he felt like an absolute fool once the damage had been done, and even more of one now that he wouldn't be able to clear the air with her, at least not until he got out of this game. As such, he was done entertaining his pointless paranoia: all it really served to bring him was pain. Thus, he resolved to ignore it, and in doing so he was sure he'd just spared himself a sleepless night or two - though the horrendous price of the dish fit for five people promised to make up for the difference, what with the chunk it took out of the savings he'd been setting aside to get himself a sweet-ass coat whenever they were made available for purchase. _My pain is immeasurable and my day is ruined_ , he thought grimly, mentally waving goodbye to that coat, at least for an extra week or two.

He still felt better overall, though, the dismissal of the heavy thoughts from earlier leaving him feeling light and even, dare he say it, a little carefree, like how evaporating sweat took heat away with it. Perfect timing too, actually; now he could focus more on the raid that was happening later. It wouldn't do to bring baggage like that to a life or death fight, after all.

* * *

Kirito had been looking weirdly content for a while now. Sure, he'd moaned a bit about the boar she ordered - which had been quite the value for money, by the way - but overall he seemed strangely...mellow. Like...he'd come to a realisation of sorts, or came to a decision for something. Or maybe he'd received enlightenment from having his earthly possessions(read:col) wringed from him.

...maybe she'd pay the guy back, just a bit.

She could afford to put it off for later, though, since for now at least Kirito was suitably distracted by something else...that something else being Valkyrie, who was stood up next to a large status screen. "As you can see, while my build is generally more geared towards damage, my heavier equipment allows me to tank more hits than Zest can, which puts me between him and Agil in terms of the punishment we can take. As a sort of fusion between a damage-dealer and a tank, however, I lack the agility to avoid the boss's strikes, as well as the bulk to tank them reliably. As a result, I would much prefer to deal with the Kobold Sentinels; my lance skill, 'Blood Drive', heals me according to how much damage I deal, which gives me much more sustainability against weaker enemies with lower defences."

Having gotten acquainted with each other but still having time to spare before the raid, Kirito had suggested they had a bit of discussion regarding what roles they would be playing during the raid. Surprisingly enough, Valkyrie, whose closest contribution to the conversation during breakfast had been the sounds of her munching on bread, had volunteered to give them a quick rundown on her and her team's capabilities. It was easy to tell that the girl was the quiet sort - but now that she opened her mouth, it looked like soft and not-so-often spoken as she was, she could talk a lot when she wanted to. Then again, she'd never given off the impression of someone who was unwilling to speak; _Kirito_ was unwilling, or reluctant at least, to speak to others, what with him being an antisocial dork. With how steadily, yet dispassionately Valkyrie was spilling her team's stats, skills, strengths and weaknesses though, it felt like she had no qualms about speaking at all; she just hadn't done so before because she saw no reason to, or something to that effect.

"Do you happen to have level 3 in the 'Crystal Proficiency' skill?" Kirito asked, a hand on his chin as he tried - _tried_ , mind you - for a sagely, deep-in-thought look. She was sure she'd done it way better before breakfast. "With your level of sustainability, you'd likely be more than able to spare healing crystals for healing others. What's more, with your relatively lower agility, ranged healing could prove invaluable."

"Unfortunately, my 'Crystal Proficiency' is at the lower end of level 2. I haven't had the luxury of col to spend on quite so many crystals."

"Ah, that's too bad...but since the members of our group at least are quite safe in the levels department the difference shouldn't matter too much. Here, I'll pass you a few healing crystals of my own."

...it wasn't as if Yuuki had trouble understanding what they were saying, but she had to admit that she was a bit too out of her depth to properly contribute to their conversation. From the looks of it, she wasn't the only one: Asuna and Agil were nodding along but otherwise not saying anything, while Zest seemed to be nodding _off_ and not saying anything. As it were, Kirito and Valkyrie were dominating the conversation...which was a sentence Yuuki hadn't thought she'd say, not since meeting the parties involved.

Sure, she'd only just met Valkyrie this morning...but still.

Prodding at the last vestiges of boar left on her plate, Yuuki sighed...she'd been content sitting here, occasionally listening in on their team leaders' discussion, but honestly it was her food that had been keeping her occupied. And what delightful food it was...well, it wasn't anything much compared to food in real life, since the thing was devoid of spices, sauces and the like, but you couldn't go too wrong with generous portions of juicy meat. She rolled the morsel around in her mouth for a bit, savouring the simple flavours of simulated boar that she wasn't sure she'd be able to taste again for a long time. There was a strange sense of loss when she was finally forced to swallow it, the meat having been sucked dry of flavour.

 _This is farewell, Mr. Boar…_

She'd think of him the next time she cut one down.

"Oh? Are you going somewhere, Yuuki?" Asuna asked, having noticed her rise from her seat. Kirito, too, shot a glance in her direction, but otherwise continued to converse with Valkyrie.

"Yeah," she stretched, sighing a bit as some tension left her body. "I miss that boar already, so I'm gonna go kill one outside, and eat it."

There was a moment of silence as her teammates stared at her.

"Wait, are you serious?" Asuna asked, in the tone of a person who was _just making sure_.

"No, of course I'm not. I'm just going out for some fresh air. Don't bother waiting for me; you can continue your discussion while I go catch a break."

"You say 'break', but it's not like you've been doing any work…" Kirito deadpanned, gesturing to the plate in front of her. "You just had breakfast. Heck, it might as well be lunch too, given how much you've eaten."

"Well, then I'll be going for a walk, then. To aid digestion or something. I won't be going anywhere far," she added when it looked like her partner wanted to say something, "I'll just be headed over to the amphitheatre. I'll wait around there for you guys to catch up, and then we can head up the labyrinth together."

Kirito frowned. "...alright," he gave, "but _please_ remember not to get sidetracked doing anything else. The last thing we need would be to show up to the raid only to find you missing, dueling some random guy in the town square or something."

"Pfft. You know I wouldn't do that…" Yuuki laughed, before sweatdropping when Kirito let her know exactly what he thought of that by giving her the blankest look she could imagine. "Okay, I totally would. I'll make sure I _won't_ , though, I can promise you that."

Kirito still didn't look fully convinced, but nodded regardless. _How kind of you to trust me so._ Really, sometimes he treated her less like a partner and more like his mischievous little sister, or daughter even. _Eh, good enough. I'll take what I can get_.

It'd been a little over an hour since they went for breakfast, which meant now was still actually fairly early in the morning. The early morning cold had been long since replaced by the warmth of the sun, and the clouds that covered it made sure the heat was comfortably toasty. She thanked her lucky stars for that, since it meant she could enjoy a leisurely walk outside of the shade, though what with the temperature being determined by the system she wasn't sure if luck had anything to do with it.

She began her stroll, looking around for no particular reason other than to occupy herself. Though it was still early, there were already plenty of people mingling about, though from the looks of it not many were the ones showing up for the raid later. There were a few people here and there who were dressed in light armour, but judging from the quality they were, for the lack of a better word, more 'casual' adventurers, the kind that played the game but weren't exactly at the top of the leaderboards. Then again, the fact that they were playing the game at all technically put them in front of a vast majority of players; given time, it was very possible anybody who had begun adventuring now would rise to prominence later in the game. Yuuki briefly considered how long this grace period would last. The first boss raid of Aincrad was going to take place later, after all, and if everything went well they'd have a whole other floor to themselves. Would the victory inspire more players to come out from their homes? Would it usher in a new age where the players no longer moped about, all depressed and such, but actively work together to conquer all hundred floors? Their progress was slow now, but really, everything was slow when it first started. Right now, the people who actually played the game as it was meant to be were in the minority, and people like her who worked towards completing it were even fewer in number. She took a second to imagine an Aincrad where those who sought to complete the game numbered in the hundreds, or maybe even thousands; it sounded laughably improbable, but if she stopped to think about it there were a hundred thousand players on launch day. A thousand joining in on the clearing effort was still a measly one percent: surely it wasn't too far-fetched of a fantasy?

It really wasn't, and the thought of a thousand players climbing up the castle with her was truly inspiring. It felt like something straight out of an anime, humanity's greatest warriors charging forth to battle a demon king's army, only this time said demon king was really just a smart guy in a lab coat. While the fantasy was undoubtedly an uplifting one, Yuuki still found herself somehow feeling conflicted. After all, as great as a combined effort to complete the game was, that would probably make the clearing of a hundred floors a lot faster, wouldn't it?

That was a good thing, for sure, but somehow Yuuki didn't like the idea of everything coming so quickly to an end.

Such were the thoughts that possessed her as she sat down on a bench, figuring that there was probably no harm in just relaxing for a bit. She had plenty of time to get to the amphitheatre, after all, and it wasn't as if the walk would help her digest or anything, since the food she ate likely vanished into nothingness the moment she swallowed it. Ever since coming into Aincrad, not a single player had ever needed to go to the toilet; she supposed it was technically an improvement, in a way, but it had felt unnatural whenever she had the misfortune to remember it.

Little details like that aside, though, SAO truly was a perfect simulation of reality. Yuuki breathed in deeply, taking in the fresh air that surrounded her as she looked up at the sky, the deep blue of its infinite expanse completely identical to the one she was familiar with in the real world. Simulated...she'd be lying if she said she could tell. It wasn't as if it was something she could sense with the knowledge of the fact in mind either; even when fully accepting that everything she sensed right now weren't truly happening to her, it all felt far too _real_ for her to believe it. Seeing was believing, after all, and beyond just seeing she was smelling, hearing and feeling everything around her as well. All she needed now was taste to round up all five senses, but the boar she'd just ate probably proved that imitation of taste was flawless as well.

"The sky is beautiful, is it not?"

So deep in her admirational musings she was, that she didn't notice the man sat next to her until he spoke up. A jolt of surprise went through her, but she managed to refrain from jumping out of her seat. The man seemed to notice regardless, and smiled at her warmly.

"Pardon me," the man chuckled. "I didn't mean to startle you. I simply noticed you staring up into the sky, and couldn't help but comment on it."

Couldn't help but comment on it, huh? In all honesty, she found it pretty weird that a random stranger would talk to her like that, but from the tell-tale wrinkles on his facial features she supposed he was old - and old people had a free pass when it came to striking up conversation with random people who sat next to them on benches. Then again, he really couldn't be all _that_ old, either, since the wrinkles weren't quite so pronounced, and his physique definitely spoke more of a middle-aged man than an elderly one...though it was possible he was just one of those old guys who still worked out or something. Still, it wasn't like she had any qualms talking to people under the age of 60, so she supposed she could humour him.

"No worries," Yuuki smiled back, trying to hide her embarrassment at being caught off-guard. "But to answer your question...yes, I do find it beautiful. The sky, I mean."

Simple as it was, the man raised his eyebrows, amusement dancing in the grey orbs below them. He leaned back into the bench, but glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, seemingly intrigued by her answer. "And it does not bother you that this beauty is simulated?"

A natural concern many may have had, especially since a vast majority of players still refused to accept Aincrad as their new reality. It made sense that the man might have held that curiosity - but all the same, it was funny how he had somehow managed to touch on what she'd been thinking about.

"No," she replied easily. "It doesn't bother me at all. As far as I'm concerned, this sky is real, or at least as real as I am. That's all that matters, honestly."

"An interesting viewpoint. Though some may argue that your physical body is entirely falsified too, while your undoubtedly true mind is a deeper level of reality as compared to the things you currently perceive, be it the sky or even your own body." The man paused, having seen her scrunch her face up as she tried to wrap her head around what he just said. "Too deep?" He laughed, to which Yuuki nodded sheepishly. "Ignore what I said, then. Still, your positivity is astounding. Not many have had the courage or flexibility to come to terms with what you have. If the fact that it is fake does not sully your opinion of it, though, is there anything that ruins this sky in your eyes?"

"No…?" Yuuki replied hesitantly. This sounded like it was probing for a particular response, but she couldn't tell what the guy was getting at. Actually why was a random stranger _getting at_ anything anyway? She'd thought this was a regular conversation, plain and simple.

The man regarded her for a good few seconds, during which she felt weirdly uncomfortable. It wasn't creepy, per se...but she felt naked in his stare. Not in the undress-me-with-your-eyes kind of way - or at least she hoped not - but rather in a way that felt as if there was not a thing in the world she could have hidden from him if she tried. Was this the power of the worldly wisdom old people kept saying they had?

"...so it seems you were spared the sight," the man finally spoke, his gaze making its leisurely way back to _not_ Yuuki, which she immediately felt immensely relieved for, though she wasn't sure why. "An objectively good thing, though that opens up a host of potential problems moving forward. You are taking part in the first boss raid of Aincrad today, are you not?"

The question was posed suddenly, the change in subject jarring enough to have her pause for a moment, to re-consolidate her thoughts. "Yes," she replied eventually. "How did you…?"

"You are in full armour markedly early in the morning, yet you do not seem to be heading out of the town's safe zone quite yet. This, taken together with your equipment's obvious quality as well as your own spoken acceptance of this world, suggests quite heavily that you would be involved in the big event advertised to take place later today. But enough about that," the man dismissed. "Tell me, Yuuki, have you had an encounter with death in the month leading up to now?"

No dramatic pause, nor a fluctuation in his speech pattern; the question was delivered unceremoniously, casually even. And yet it took Yuuki's breath away nonetheless. The man, somehow missing her audible gasp seemed to misinterpret her silence as confusion, and began to explain his words. "Of course, I don't mean to ask if you _died_ ; what I meant to ask was if you had come into contact with it. Be it someone you were acquainted with, or a complete stranger."

The explanation, brief as it was, gave her time to catch her breath, and regain her ability to speak. "No," she admitted. "I haven't."

But to be fair, it wasn't as if many others had either. Most people stayed in the Town of Beginnings, for crying out loud, so there was no way any of them were at risk of having their health bars go down to zero or seeing it happen to anyone else. Heck, even amongst adventurers, she hadn't heard anybody mention travel companions dying. After all, most of the deaths in SAO had happened on -

Launch...day…

 _So that's the sight I was spared, huh?_ She thought to herself grimly.

The sight of players throwing themselves off of Aincrad, that was.

She'd _heard_ of what happened, of course, since mass suicide wasn't exactly subtle. But thanks to Kirito's abnormally quick thinking, she'd indeed been spared the sight, having been asleep in an inn by the time the panic got out of control enough for it to happen. Thinking about it, it must have been a harrowing sight, one that a great many players were likely exposed to. With that in mind, it was no wonder why so many still refused to come out from their inns in the Town of Beginnings…

Oh god, it also explained why Asuna had been so quick to label the game as an enemy, didn't it? Time and repressed emotions had likely healed the wound by yesterday, but...she'd really had no idea. It had never occurred to her in the slightest what kind of effects a sight like that would have on a teenager her age. She'd...she'd been quite insensitive yesterday, hadn't she?

"I see," came the man's reply. Short, dispassionate, and frankly undermining the things she felt right now. "That is a problem. I will cut to the chase - you will be stuck in Aincrad, and SAO, for potentially years to come. There are a hundred floors, with a hundred bosses; each of these possess the capability to kill many a player. Eventually, you will see death with your own eyes, albeit a great deal less grisly than it might be in real life. Regardless, the fact that no body is left behind after death does not take away from the shock of seeing one."

"Now, I am not saying it will happen to anyone you care about, though if you stay on and come to care for the people on the front lines, it will be inevitable," he declared, his casual tone doing nothing to dampen the absolute certainty in his words. "But even if you don't, eventually you will see someone die, even if it's not someone you know or are even acquainted with. Be it a day, a month, or maybe even a year into the future - you will see it happen. And when it does, chances are you would be in the line of danger as well, having been close enough to see someone else's demise. When that time comes, do not falter. Death is painful to observe, or at the very least shocking if you had no connection to the deceased, but should you allow that shock to get the better of you you might find yourself the next to meet your end."

The man paused, but Yuuki made no move to speak in the silence. He continued.

"It is unfair, perhaps, that one cannot even be given time to accept what they see, let alone mourn or grieve, but I can say as fact that this is an unavoidable, if unfortunate truth of this world. The mass suicide on launch day didn't happen all at once, after all. It started with one, maybe two or even ten players, who decide to terminate their avatars, be it due to misplaced hope of logging out through death or simply the loss of hope altogether. The gathered players, already in a panic, witness individuals drop off the edge of the world, falling into the abyss that is the night sky below Aincrad. These individuals fail to return. The panic grows, and more are awakened to the fact that death is real, permanent, and already happening around them. Overwhelmed by fear, or simply desperation at their predicament, more players begin to drop off of Aincrad, before the whole thing escalates into a mass suicide of yet unseen proportions. I need not tell you that this one event killed far more than any one floor boss could have possibly killed, with the death toll easily numbering in the thousands. Yet, what caused it? What caused this tragedy, and why did it happen at such a scale?"

"The answer to that is death, or rather the populace's general unpreparedness for it. No one was prepared for the shock of seeing another end their lives, and by some strange instinct the desperation spreads from the deceased to the living, growing to take hold of far more than the original few who had succumbed, and done themselves in. The tragedy basically wrote itself - the moment a single person died, it was a foregone conclusion that a great many more would follow that night. Of course, yet more lived, and while majority broke from it there were still some who emerged from the horrifying experience all the stronger for it."

"But you don't have that luxury, do you?" The man asked, finally turning to face her as he spoke. He chuckled, though for the life of her she couldn't see the humour in it. "I apologise for killing your mood, I really do, but what you must understand is that this is something you will have to prepare for. Should you make the same mistake as the second wave of the deceased, you might very well find yourself in the same place where they ended up. Of course, I am not suggesting you would kill yourself just because you saw someone else do it, but the one that does you in might just as well be a monster, quite possibly the same one that kills the unfortunate person who expires in front of you. When it happens, and it will...you will need to be prepared should you want to survive."

With a grunt, the man abruptly extracted himself from the bench, stretching his arms a bit before continuing. "Of course, I praised your positivity before, and it would be very much beneficial to you to carry on that way. In fact, for the most part it would be for the best if you forgot everything I have just said. You can, and _should_ , continue as you have been, as if none of this conversation ever happened. Don't let it take away from you even a moment of happiness. Yet, at the same time, prepare yourself nonetheless. Because when the time comes, you will need to have an answer to this question: _what will I do when someone dies in front of me?_ "

Without even turning back, the man walked away, refusing her a view of his face in favour of his silvery grey hair. "Think on that, but don't dwell on it for too long," he called out, though he didn't stop, nor even slow down as he delivered the words. Eventually his footsteps grew faint, and vanished entirely - leaving Yuuki alone with her thoughts.


	6. The First of Many

_Death._

 _It's common knowledge, of course, that it happens; that in time, all things must have an end, with people being no exception._

 _But that wasn't always the case, was it? Er, that it was common knowledge; I'm pretty sure that other thing's been that way since the dawn of time. We weren't born knowing our lives were finite; I mean, it'd be pretty unfortunate if we were, wouldn't it? As it is, all of us must have, at one point, had the concept taught to us. Not in school - sure, maybe you'd learn why it happened in biology or something, but I highly doubt anyone still thinks people just keep living on forever by the time they're learning about how it happens. No… I haven't asked, of course, but for the most part, I'd wager the bombshell was dropped on the most of us by our parents - or caretakers, I guess - in a moment of curiosity. Just...bam. Like that. One moment we're all "man, I hope I don't get that wrinkly when I'm a hundred," and the next (after a quick lesson) we're like, "oh… so maybe not a hundred, then." It's usually a disappointment, but luckily kids have the luxury of time; they don't really have to worry all too much about death so soon, and so don't think much on the frankly distressing knowledge they would have just learnt. It's pretty convenient, really, that by the time the human mind is mature enough to comprehend, and thus have a breakdown over our mortality, most of us would have already been aware of it for quite a while._

 _I...didn't have that luxury._

" _Yuuki!"_

 _My mother sobbed, hysterically, as she wrapped me up in her arms. It gave me a bit of a shock, to be honest, but she was crying and her embrace wasn't particularly uncomfortable. I just kind of went with it. "Oh my god, Yuuki, mommy's sorry. Mommy is so, so sorry…"_

" _Aoi," my father rebuked, though it was done so gently I hesitate to call it that at all, "not...not now. Yuuki doesn't know what's going on yet, and you're probably confusing her. Maybe it'd be best if you let the doctor explain what's going on first."_

 _Is something going on? I thought. Or rather, I would have, but before the thought could really complete itself I gasped in surprise, my mother having suddenly pulled me closer, burying her face into my shoulder as sobs wracked her body._

 _My mother had, up till this point, been a very strong woman. Strangely clumsy, if I'm honest, constantly tripping over things or cutting herself while cooking, but she always took it with nothing more than an 'ouch'. She'd actually gotten pretty badly hurt before, apparently spraining her ankle when she tripped and was left unable to catch herself properly while carrying groceries up a flight of stairs, but even then she hadn't cried. I asked her about it, once, and she simply said that after having me and Nee-chan (whatever 'having' the two of us meant, a younger and less educated me thought), nothing else could really compare._

 _Except for whatever was going on here, apparently._

 _It took some time, I'm not sure how much, before my mother could be convinced to let go of me. What followed was kind of a blur - or maybe just insignificant enough that I've forgotten - but eventually I found myself seated at a desk that came up to my neck. Strange fact to remember, I know, but I distinctly recall resting my chin on the table and thinking to myself how it was the perfect height. Heh...funny how these things stick with you._

" _So, Yuuki-chan, was it?" the doctor asked, to which I nodded. "And you are...6 years old?" I nodded again. "Right, Yuuki-chan. Tell me; how much of what was said just now did you understand?" Now, I can't remember what was said then - but I can distinctly remember how much of it I understood._

" _Nothing," I replied, to which the doctor chuckled. "Yes, well, I figured that much. Here's the gist, Yuuki-chan; you're sick," he said, a statement which I felt was incredibly 'duh'. I said as much, albeit in a politer fashion._

" _Uh-huh," I nodded, "I am sick. That's why I'm here seeing you." The doctor laughed, as if I'd told some funny joke, which annoyed me a little. "So you can make me feel better," I continued, trying to explain to this oddly stupid adult why it made perfect sense that I would only be seeing a doctor if I was sick._

 _Oddly enough the statement made the doctor's laughter stop abruptly._

" _See, that's the thing," the doctor pushed, silencing me with the sheer weight that he seemed to be putting into those words, "I can't help you get better, Yuuki-chan. Not entirely."_

 _I blinked. "Oh," I answered. "That's sad to hear. It's okay, though, my mommy and daddy will be bringing me to see another doctor. Everyone fails sometimes, so you don't have to feel bad."_

 _That stunned the doctor, for a second, before he began laughing again, though I really couldn't understand why. "No, no," the doctor shook his head through his laughter, "you don't understand. I've already prescribed you antibiotics - a kind of medicine, Yuuki-chan - to help with your illness, so your cough and fever should subside. The problem is...well, you have a special condition, one that'll keep getting you ill. You'll be getting sick a lot, and...most likely, the sicknesses that you get will get worse and worse. And while I, and other doctors, will be able to treat those illnesses, we won't be able to stop them from coming back."_

 _Well, that sucks, would be a fairly accurate, if slightly more crass, summation of my thoughts of the time. "Oh," I replied simply. "That doesn't sound nice. I don't think I like that. Will I get better when I'm all grown up?" I ask. "Mommy told me grown-ups get sick less."_

 _It was here, probably, that younger, dumber me suddenly realised that this was something much larger than anything I had really imagined. For it was here the doctor's face scrunched up, the man biting his lip so hard I was starting to get uneasy._

" _The thing is, Yuuki-chan," he began, "there is no guarantee that you'll get to..._ _ **be**_ _a grown-up."_

* * *

"You're distracted."

The words were near silent amongst the ruckus kicked up by the players around them. And yet, somehow, they were the only ones Yuuki heard, snapping her out of her stupour. She blinked once, the lights and sounds around her slowly filtering back into her mind, the gears in it slowly turning as she registered her surroundings. People...people everywhere. She was in the middle of a crowd, a rather loud one at that, all cheering and whooping at someone she couldn't quite catch sight of, in large part due to the tall, broad-shouldered African-American man stood before her. Still dazed, Yuuki's mind hadn't quite caught up to her yet even as she turned face the source of the voice that had called out to her, only fully tuning back into reality when her partner's gaze met her own. Deep, weirdly large (for a Japanese teen, anyway) black orbs narrowed in concern, the taller boy's forehead creasing as he seemed to scan her features for signs of...something. Faced with such a sight, a warm feeling suffused Yuuki's chest - and she said the first thing that came to mind.

"Should I be worried for my chastity around you now?"

"You little - I'm trying to see if you're _okay_ , Yuuki," Kirito huffed, though a bit of pink did dust his cheeks at the insinuation. He seemed to realise, funnily enough, but whatever irritation that spawned was quickly overpowered by his concern. "Are you alright? If you're feeling under the weather, it'd be best to let me know now. It'll be a lot harder to back out once we're in the boss room."

Not like it was much easier here, Yuuki felt like pointing out, and unbidden, her eyes flicked towards the entrance to the boss room. The great steel doors, framed by a simple stone archway that protruded slightly from smooth, albeit slightly cracked, walls, stood tall over the raid group, the twin pyres flanking them casting them in a low orange glow. The light, dim as it was, reflected off of the blackened steel, giving the doors an almost otherworldly aura - which made them all the more imposing. There was absolutely no question, to anyone who laid eyes upon them, that what lay beyond was something big - in a purely symbolic sense, if not literally. This was, after all, the _first boss_ ; sure, future bosses would likely make this one look like cake in comparison, albeit the least appetising cake ever, but the fact that it was the _first_ one they had to beat...a more optimistic person would call it momentous.

Yuuki would settle for terrifying.

" _Yuuki_ ," Kirito prodded, and with a start she realised that she hadn't actually answered her partner's question.

"Sorry, sorry," Yuuki laughed, scratching her head sheepishly. "I'm fine, though. I was just… uh… mesmerised by the speech."

Yes, the speech. Her mind now back in focus, everything came back to her so naturally that she felt stupid to have forgotten. Diavel was giving a speech, the blue-haired man stood before the great doors as he spoke to the raid group, and by the sounds of it doing a pretty good job. Whatever apprehension that had been in the air during the strategy meeting was curiously absent. Here, the crowd was _cheering_ instead, some even clanging their weapons against their armour to accompany their voices.

"I see," Kirito nodded. "And just what part of the speech had you quite so mesmerised?"

"The, uh...best part?" Yuuki tried. She winced when Kirito raised an unimpressed eyebrow. "Okay, yeah, so I wasn't listening. At all. I really am fine though," she rushed to add when her partner looked like he was about to interrupt, "I guess I just zoned out for a minute there. You know me - short attention span and all that. Or, hell, maybe it's just nerves."

Kirito didn't look like he fully believed her, but to his credit saw fit to not push further. "Well, I guess even the best of us can get a little apprehensive when something big is right in front of us," he gave. "For what it's worth, I'd wager everyone else here feels it too. We're just latching onto Diavel's narrative because it's more appealing than what our imaginations are coming up with - though, shallow as it sounds, it does seem to be working."

"Hm," Yuuki hummed in agreement, though her grin grew impish shortly after. "Posing your own worries as others', aren't you? Don't know about everyone else, but I can definitely see _you_ giving yourself stomachaches in pointless worry."

Kirito stilled, as good as confirming her statement, but rather than press on as she'd usually do, Yuuki simply laughed and turned back to Diavel's speech, content to leave her partner be for now. After all, he'd done her a favour here - far be it for her to tease him right after he helped her.

"And so I say to you, in standing here, armed and ready for the trial that awaits us, we have already won half the battle," Diavel called, earning cheers and shouts of affirmation from the crowd anew. "For this proves, beyond all doubt, that our intent is not to cower. That, despite how none of us signed up for this when we first logged on, we are all too willing to fight nonetheless. Have pride in yourselves! For, as of this moment, you are all the first to lead the charge against the castle of Aincrad - and through it, Kayaba."

 _How the hell did I tune_ _ **this**_ _out?_ she couldn't help but wonder. She watched in awe as the man spoke, enrapturing his audience with words quite obviously meant to boost morale, yet oh so easy to accept regardless. For behind the ego-stroking rhetoric was a sense of pride and courage, an earnestness that permeated his every word and swore to all who heard them that what was being said was nothing but the truth. Again and again the raid leader spoke of their task's importance, and the underlying danger of it all, and yet while passing on that understanding he underscored it with a slew of reassurances that nothing that they had set out to achieve was impossible. It made her feel like they was doing something important, which, well, they were, but somehow the man just made it out to be so much _grander_ than she had ever considered. It honestly sounded like something out of a fantasy film, when the general or king or whatever rallied his army forth for a final confrontation with the big bad(complete with the pretentious language to boot, but really the pros far outweigh the cons here). And to think, just a day ago, the mere prospect of having to face a floor boss was terrifying enough to mute all conversation... but now? They were stood right outside its door - and the exact opposite was true. It was rather impressive, actually, that such a drastic change could be made through sheer charisma alone.

A part of her objected to that, pointing out that mere _words_ didn't change anything, but before it could list out the host of reasons why she still had every right to be worried she ruthlessly quashed it down. Stupid brain with its stupid logic - when had it and all its _facts_ ever brought her bliss? Really, all it ever did was remind her about things that sucked, like school and celery and… and ignorance was where it was at, was all she was saying. Given that, it wouldn't be a bad idea to let herself fall into those sweet nothings just like everyone else.

"This is the beginning of a new age!" The man called once more, a call that was echoed by his now entirely captivated audience. "And we are its heralds! We will charge into that room, and march back out with naught but victory. We will prove to all that this world is no deathtrap. We will prove that it is no stone wall! No, today we shall prove that this world is, as we all know, a game - a game that can be beaten!"

When the raid group roared it's agreement once more, Yuuki found herself joining in. Yes, that was right - this was a game. A game. When soldiers marched into a warzone, it was known that not all would be marching back out. But when players charged into a boss room? It was entirely possible, no, highly probable given their extensive planning and prior knowledge, for all players to walk back out of the boss room, all alive and accounted for. They were ready. They could do this.

She just had to believe it so.

As Diavel's own teammates pushed open the great doors behind him, for what Yuuki could only imagine to be dramatic effect, the raid group brought forth yet another roar - a roar full of power, full of energy, full of _life_. And it was with that same roar upon her lips… that Yuuki, along with everyone else who had gathered outside the boss room, began to charge through the doors, and into the darkness that lay within.

* * *

As the raid group charged in, torches began to light up along the walls, blazing to life one by one before them, effectively illuminating their path as they went. Her throat now scratchy and sore from all that shouting she'd been doing, Yuuki couldn't help but wonder just how far in the boss was, and whether it'd only deem to appear once the hype died down - but right as she did, the torches before them began to light up in rapid succession, allowing the raid group to finally lay their eyes on their battlefield.

At first glance, it looked to be a super-sized hallway, not just long but also absurdly tall and wide, enough so that it soon became clear that what they were looking at was not a hallway at all, but rather a room so large that its length allowed it to be mistaken for one. Huge, towering pillars held up a stone ceiling so high that it might as well have been the sky - or, well, the ceiling of a multi-storey shopping mall without all the floors in between - leading onwards toward a gigantic throne, scaled up, presumably, to match the massive form of the beast sat upon it.

As the illumination from the torches approached the beast on the throne, casting some light upon its form, Yuuki's breath caught. With faintly glowing eyes and fangs laced with glistening spittle, the thing was easily over three meters tall, though the sheer bulk of its red-furred form made it seem all the larger. It's limbs, though comparatively short and stubby compared to its monstrous girth, were still thick and large enough to crush a player underfoot, and Yuuki's mouth went dry when she saw the monster stand, picking up an axe with a blade larger than some players from the side of its throne, as well as a buckler that looked like it could function as the roof of a small house.

All of a sudden, Yuuki felt very, very small...

Ironically enough, it was the beast itself that snapped her out of her terror, though only by bringing her focus back to reality. A low growl escaped it's jaws, reverberating throughout the room as the light washed over it - before, with a flash of fire, the large torches at either side of its throne burst to life, flooding the area in light and revealing the monster's body in full. No sooner had the raid group been given this first, full glimpse of their opponent, however, than the beast leapt high into the air. It roared as it landed before them, kicking up copious amounts of dust that spewed forth from the ground. Four health bars appeared above its head, filling themselves up beside the boss's name: Illfang, the Kobold Lord.

The immersion was ruined, somewhat, by the spawning of the kobold sentinels, which actually stood shorter than some of the older players present. While certainly not insects or rats in comparison, the sentinels looked like they, too, could be crushed under their boss's feet - and it was with this in her mind that Yuuki charged forward, a battlecry upon her lips, as she swung her sword at it. The blade bit deep, a red gash trailing behind it from the sentinel's shoulder to its ribcage, where Yuuki's sword - glowing a quickly dimming white - was lodged. The monster screeched, but rather than follow up, Yuuki found her eyes trailing over to the health bar above its head...which had fallen almost 20%, with only a single swing.

Almost cheering with glee at her discovery, Yuuki twirled, putting a bit of flourish into her next swing as she slashed the thing diagonally across its chest, to which the monster responded to with another screech, followed by an angry growl as it tried to hit her with its mace, only for it to meet empty air as Yuuki stepped back, and out of its range. While there seemed to be more than the three of them that the guide had said there would be, though, teams E and F made up half of their total raid group, each team being twice as large as the teams that were now tackling the boss. As such, Yuuki didn't actually manage to get in another hit as the players around her fell upon it, the monster screeching once more as it struggled to fight against the absolute torrent of blows that were being rained upon it, even as a good half of the two teams hung back, surrounding the players who were fighting in a ring, but otherwise simply waiting for their turns.

Kirito, however, didn't wait his turn. If there was anything she had in common with her quiet, socially inept partner, it was that the both of them shared a passion for battle - and in the way Kirito fought, it showed. Instantly, all signs of the introverted, sometimes even clumsy boy melted away to show the form of an accomplished swordsman, her partner demonstrating just what skills he had picked up on and familiarised himself with in the beta. Expertly parrying a sentinel's mace to the side, Kirito delivered two quick slashes to its chest and a rising one to its helmeted face, before kicking it back into some other player's blade before turning to engage another. He diverted it's weapon towards the ground as he dashed towards it, his sword shining a brilliant blue before slicing clean through the kobold's belly as he passed it by. Apparently that sentinel in particular had already received quite an amount of punishment from other players already, and burst into polygons; though with the number of them upped a fair bit, the loss of one sentinel wasn't much. Then again, the things seemed to be falling rather quickly, what with the sheer number of players overwhelming them.

A little bit over to Yuuki's right, Asuna leapt in to stab a sentinel a few times right between the helmet's visor, before her partner, Valkyrie swiftly chased it down as it stumbled back, swinging her heavy lance in a wide arc above her as she sent it crashing down onto the monster, a motion so swift and brutal that Yuuki couldn't help but be surprised - but then again, it was always the quiet ones you had to look out for, wasn't it? Valkyrie's swings only relented when Asuna swapped herself in, her own weapon a blur as she unleashed upon the sentinel a flurry of stabs, none of them slow enough for the sentinel to actually block with its cumbersome two-handed weapon, and with a final thrust, it too shattered into polygons, but the fearsome duo paid it no heed, instead darting off to locate more sentinels to slay.

In comparison to their admittedly very impressive showing, Yuuki on the other hand had only managed to get a few hits in on a few different sentinels- at least, she thought they were different ones, but they all looked the same so for all she knew she could have been poking the same one - before she realised that the bulk of them had fallen. Even as she plunged her sword into one of the few remaining sentinels' necks, which had it shatter and earned her a grateful nod from a male player wielding a katana, she registered that while this wasn't the last one, it was certainly the last one she was going to be fighting, as whatever other sentinels that remained were quickly taken down by players situated a respectable distance away from her. By the time she would get there, the sentinels would have been long gone. Sure enough, teams E and F were soon free from sentinels, with a vast majority of them walking out of the encounter with their health bars still firmly in the green. Yuuki's heart soared, even as she sought to ignore it's accelerated beating - could it be that this boss battle would turn out to be a cinch after all?

One look at the actual boss told her that no, apparently it would not. It wasn't as if the other players were struggling per se, but Illfang the Kobold Lord's health bar didn't seem to be dropping nearly as fast as any of the Kobold Sentinel's did, even with twelve offensively built players attacking it simultaneously. The tanks were doing their job admirably though, taking it's hits like champs, barely flinching as the boss's gargantuan, if crude, axe fell upon their shields, and yet there were only a few of them who looked even close to approaching the yellow - and even then they had fresh, eager partners with full health bars ready to switch in. It seemed as if despite the boss's high attack power, the axe could really only hit two to three players at once, which made its total damage output to the defensive line rather underwhelming, for all it's monstrous size. Chipping away at its health was also slow going, however, so simply leaving the players already engaging it to carry on didn't absolutely guarantee victory either.

With the backup teams entirely free from their duties of taking out the sentinels, however, even that fact looked like it was about to change; as agreed upon during the strategy meeting, the players closer to the boss leapt in to deliver a couple of sword skills, before leaping back out of the fray so as to make sure the main damage dealers had space to work with. Since sword skills did substantially more damage than regular attacks did, the boss's health bar dipped suddenly as a relentless wave of hard-hitting skills connected with its body, bright red gashes imposing themselves upon dark red fur. Individual sword skills had cooldowns, but seeing as each player likely had more than one hard-hitting one, added to the sheer number of players there were, it almost looked like it was possible for the boss's rapidly dropping health to continue doing so - and it did, the kobold lord roaring in fury as it's first health bar was quickly reduced to nothing. Yuuki smiled, sprinting towards the boss to contribute some sword skills of her own.

 _If this keeps up, we'll be done with it in no time!_

Yuuki's excitement was short-lived, however, as with the depletion of the boss's first health bar came more kobold sentinels - but this time they spawned _within their ranks_ , the line of sentinels cutting their forces almost cleanly in half as part of the group ran past their spawn points. Yuuki's view of her partner's back was suddenly obstructed by one shimmering into existence right in front of her, and with a start she realised she wouldn't be able to stop her sprint in time.

Her partner, however, had somehow skidded to a stop just after the sentinel spawned, as if he had known it would appear behind him from the beginning. Twisting back, he darted towards the kobold, grunting as he sliced it across the back. The monster, which had looked like it was about to swing it's mace straight into Yuuki's face, cried out in what she guessed was shock, gurgling as it struggled to turn around to face it's assailant. This proved to be a mistake, however, when Yuuki slammed into it, using her momentum to impale it all the way up to her sword's hilt in one clean stab. She didn't so much pull the blade out as slash it through the creature's belly, extracting it from it's side and leaving it with a deep red gash that ran half the width of its torso. Her partner wasn't done either, casually batting it's weapon aside as he slashed it diagonally across the chest, before spinning on the spot to give it a matching gash on the left side of its belly, leaving the monster looking like it should have been sliced in half. Its health bar was even lower than that, and not one to be outdone Yuuki leapt up, spinning like a top in mid-air and slashing it in the head twice, before dashing past it just as her feet touched the ground, slicing it clean in half - again - with her Onyx Slasher held at her side, it's signature purple glow fading as did the creature behind her. She held the pose, too, if only to show Kirito who was boss, and while she couldn't actually see his reaction she could just _feel_ him rolling his eyes. Served him right for trying to to one-up her, the competitive little bastard.

She'd have liked to show off a little more, but unfortunately she found the general vicinity once again free of sentinels, the players having adapted quickly to the surprise of having their enemies spawn among them, taking care of them just as easily as they had before. Adrenaline still running through her from the surprise of the sentinel's spawning and the quick shift to combat, Yuuki couldn't help but feel a tad disappointed, a feeling she grasped tightly on to as a measure of her newfound confidence.

"Man, this boss raid turned out to be quite the snooze, huh?" Yuuki joked, turning to Kirito. One look at his face told her that he didn't share in her humour, however; in fact, the teen looked worried.

That… worried her more than she might care to admit.

"What's wrong?" She asked, more than aware of how weird it was to be standing around, having a conversation during a flipping _boss raid_ , but the boss, which at this point was the only remaining mob left, was pretty far away, and already well-surrounded. That, and Kirito looked to be deep in thought, and she felt as if to move him was to disturb his thought process.

"It's just...there were only supposed to be three of them," Kirito frowned, "the sentinels, I mean."

"Yes, I noticed," Yuuki agreed, "but it doesn't really matter, does it? They were small fry. Easily taken care of."

"Well, yes… but the implications of this are worrying. As easy as those sentinels may have been, the fact that the data in the guidebook didn't match what we encountered here can only mean that things were changed after the beta…" Kirito sighed, running a hand over his face. "Well, everything else seems to be the same, at least. Did you manage to catch sight of the Kobold Sentinels' levels?"

Yuuki tried to recall, but came up with a blank. "Nope, sorry. I just took to slashing them, and they kind of die before I really get to look at the numbers above their heads. All I know is that their health bars fall _fast._ "

"Figures...well, that the numbers didn't catch either of our attentions probably means they weren't any different from what we expected them to be, so it's safe enough to assume that wasn't changed, I think. Still, I can't help but feel as if everything is just a bit too easy…"

As if to prove his point, the boss roared once more, more sentinels spawning around them as Illfang's second health bar was depleted. "That was fast," Yuuki commented, quickly falling into a battle stance, eager to actually get in on more action, especially before the adrenaline faded. Kirito came up behind her, and the two partners stood back-to-back, facing down a trio of sentinels that had spawned around them, surrounding them in a sort of triangle formation.

"From the looks of things, we're outnumbered three to two," Kirito murmured, but before Yuuki could compliment him on his _wonderful_ mathematical skills, she noticed that he hadn't been talking about the two of them alone; somehow, the entirety of teams E and D were now surrounded by kobolds, the creature's spawning three at a time to surround every pair of players. "Strange...could Kayaba have changed the stage since it was too easy in the beta?"

A shiver went down Yuuki's spine; so this boss fight wasn't the same as the beta? Having taken comfort in the knowledge that others had beaten the boss before, the prospect of things having changed did little for her nerves - which had only just begun to reattach themselves after their earlier fraying. All their strategies, their tactics - hadn't it all been planned around the beta? If the boss fight wasn't the same, didn't that mean that they'd basically just waltzed in, unprepared?

She shook her head dispelling her thoughts before the fear could take hold. She was being silly; Kirito had just said that everything else was the same, and as far as she could tell their strategy was still holding up just fine. Plus, the only thing that had actually changed - that being the number of Kobold Sentinels that spawned - was being dealt with easily. Looking at it like that, there really was no cause for concern, was there? Yuuki took in a deep breath, and exhaled loudly.

"If Kayaba wants to give us all more EXP, I'm all for it!" she exclaimed instead, the sound nearly drowned out by the gurgled battle cries of the monsters that pounced upon them. This sound was quickly replaced, however, by a song of steel, as Yuuki, Kirito and all the other players around them began to fight in earnest.

* * *

Kirito grunted, knocking aside a sentinel's mace and diverting such that it hit another sentinel that had come up from the side. Tracing his sword back, he sliced a line across the kobold's neck, and it growled as it fell back, taking additional damage from Kirito's neck-strike, but otherwise surviving. It didn't make much of a difference, though, as Yuuki lunged forward, slashing the mob across the back and causing it to shatter.

The boss's HP had been reduced to its final bar, but yet the final wave of sentinels was no harder to take care of than the previous few. Well, technically that wasn't true; he'd paid attention to the levels after the second wave had been taken care of, and the final wave did indeed have higher level mobs. There were also enough of them to actually surround the players properly...but it still didn't cause them any noticeable problems, since they still fell with minimal effort, only very occasionally managing to get hits in even with their superior numbers, likely due to how choreographed their attacks looked now that the players had already taken down two whole waves of them. Plus, if the other day had been any indication, the raid group was apparently majorly comprised of beta testers. These and a number of other factors combined, and what they had at the end of the day was, despite all the early apprehension, a perfectly doable - easy, even - boss fight.

And that worried him a little.

 _Calm down, Kazuto...it's only the first floor. Maybe the boss isn't supposed to be that hard at all._

After all, it made sense that the first boss wouldn't be anything too challenging, and despite the one-sidedness of the battle it wasn't as if the boss wasn't putting up a fight; they'd been hacking away at it for a while now, and the boss was still going strong, doing substantial damage to the tank players with its axe, even if said damage was rendered null and void when the injured players swapped out to heal. Yes, the fact that the boss wasn't a complete pushover despite most of their raid group being vastly overleveled meant that it wasn't the boss that was easy, but the players who were prepared. It all made sense. What he felt was an easy battle was _earned,_ through a good strategy, and over-preparedness level wise.

And yet...well, he had told himself he'd be ignoring his paranoia, but at the same time it wasn't as if his fears were completely unfounded. In a normal MMO, the relative ease with which they were winning was to be expected...but SAO was no normal MMO. Even looking past that whole 'die in the game, die in real life' caveat, SAO had been the brainchild of Kayaba Akihiko - the greatest damn genius of their day and age, madman who trapped kids in video games or not.

To say he understood what went through Kayaba's mind was the height of hubris, but Kirito thought that he at least had a sufficient enough grasp of the man's mindset to understand certain things - and from what he understood of the concept of a 'Death Game', he was fairly certain that there was to be an element of _death_ in it. Sure, many had died within the first month of SAO, but most of it had been suicide, be it by throwing themselves off of Aincrad or intentionally walking into a den of monsters without any preparations or even equipment. Yes, that SAO had directly caused the deaths of hundreds, likely thousands even, was true…

But none of it had been part of the 'game'.

He didn't know about anyone else, but he found it hard to believe that Kayaba would create a game that killed you when your HP hit zero, fill it with a hundred floors of monsters and bosses, and have all the deaths that occur be due to people jumping off the floating castle. What's more, the man had explicitly stated that he wanted to play _god_ \- combined with the whole premise of a Death Game, it didn't take a genius to figure out Kayaba wanted control over life and death. Of course, it was possible Kayaba simply meant that he'd wanted to sit back, and observe their suffering from the heavens, likely some dark room in the real world filled with screens hidden from the government, doing nothing but marvel at his handiwork. It's what a megalomaniac who would trap a hundred thousand people in a twisted game would do, but at the same time Kayaba was no megalomaniac...or, well, maybe he was, but at the same time the man was a visionary, dreaming of his ideal world and then sculpting it with his own two hands. Sure, it was possible he only wanted to observe...but somehow, Kirito doubted it.

Even if Kayaba hadn't the slightest intention of interfering with the world he created, however, Kirito still stood by his point that the game would at least be designed to kill a number of them in their quest to reach the top and escape, and at the risk of sounding like a psychopath himself Kirito could see no better place to cull the ranks than the first boss that players would have to face. The first of anything was usually a tone-setter, after all; if the first day of school saw you getting bullied by a bunch of older kids, you could sort of tell the rest of the term wasn't going to be a bed of roses, to say the least. The first boss, therefore, was the perfect place to kick the players down a peg, knocking them back down into despair right after enough of them had climbed out of it to muster the forces necessary for a boss raid.

Of course, it'd also be possible that the first boss would be a spot of hope for the largely depressed population, which seemed to be what Diavel had been banking on. Later on, of course, there would be tough times - the 25th, 50th, 75th and 100th floor bosses promised to be those, what with them having been confirmed to be a few of the most difficult bosses on Aincrad, but at the same time that effect could be better achieved by making the boss hard enough to take a few lives, but easy enough to take down on the first try.

 _This_ , however, was simply _too easy_.

So lost in his thoughts he was, that he didn't notice the boss's final health bar enter the yellow until it roared, a player shouting a warning as it tossed it's axe and buckler aside, the oversized equipment threatening to crush a few players who immediately scrambled away. "This is the final push, everyone!" Diavel called, raising his sword in rallying triumph. "Do not falter! As long as we are able to maintain the encirclement, this victory will be ours!" There was a chorus of 'yeah's and 'woah's, and the tanks quickly hunkered down, holding their shields before them as they prepared to guard against the powerful strikes of a talwar.

Only, the blade that Illfang pulled out wasn't a talwar. Instead of the elegantly curved Indian sabre that emphasised on iaijutsu-like draw cuts, the blade that Illfang pulled out was a large, broad-bladed hunk of metal that more resembled a cleaver than a sword. It didn't entirely look like one, but Kirito recognised it as a nodachi; more specifically, _Zangetsu_ , a rather unique specimen of nodachi that (quite notoriously, during the beta) changed shape when upgraded, resembling a more traditional nodachi by the end - though from the looks of it it was still in its base form, and thus a low-level weapon. As uncharacteristically broad and heavy it was, the Japanese blade actually packed less punch than its looks would suggest - much less so than the talwar, which could kill a non-tank player in one hit if they were so unfortunate as to get caught in the boss's choreographed, single-target strikes. Where the nodachi's strength lay was, instead, in its classification as a kind of katana - giving it's wielder access to katana-type sword skills.

Kirito's eyes went wide.

With a startled yelp, he rushed off - leaving a rather confused Yuuki in his wake - and began to yell at the top of his lungs.

"Stop!" Kirito called, desperately swinging his sword to ward off attacks from a few sentinels around him. Dammit, these things were so easy to kill before, but just _had_ to get in his way now! "Break the encirclement - that's not a talwar, it's a nodachi!"

* * *

The raid was going well.

Though he wouldn't go so far as to say it'd been the result of his efforts, Diavel really thought he could afford to give himself some credit here. Their strategy, simple as it was, was flawless; not much of a surprise, really, considering how they had already known all of the boss's attack patterns in advance. It had, of course, been a terrible surprise to find the number of Sentinels being increases quite so drastically, but conveniently enough Illfang was a relatively small-sized boss that couldn't be surrounded by too many players before they started getting in each other's' way, which left about half of their raid group to absolutely slaughter the Sentinels that spawned. It also helped that just about all of their players, despite being absolute nervous wrecks about the whole 'death game' situation, were overleveled for the Sentinels and at least even with the boss itself. This made the boss fight go even smoother than it had any real right to be, which emboldened the players to fight harder, the promise of victory so tangible and ever so close that to most players, it felt like they were on the home stretch.

Not that he was any exception, of course. Taking a Sentinel's swing on his kite shield - the _Saint's Guardian_ , the best shield currently available and a rare drop from a Kobold Trooper he'd been fortunate enough to get the last hit on when they were clearing the dungeon - Diavel stepped into the Sentinel's guard, pushing the mace aside and bashing his shield against its helmet, before transitioning into _Brave Thrust_ with the sword in his right hand, the powerful stabbing move partially ignoring the mob's armour and dispersing it into particles.

Or rather, it should have. As it were, the mob hung on with but a sliver of health, knocked back and out of his range. It screeched angrily, but was quickly silenced by a swift slash from one of Diavel's teammates, allowing Diavel time to recover from the post-skill pause.

"Thank you, Lind," Diavel acknowledged, expressing his gratitude to his teammate with a nod. The younger boy grinned back, an expression Diavel returned - and let fall the moment they turned away from each other to engage the sentinels that had come to fill in for their fallen brethren. A spike of annoyance bit at him, and with some disdain he flicked _Iron Glory_ \- the _second most_ powerful one-handed sword currently available - at a hissing Kobold Sentinel, catching it under the elbow and nearly cutting the limb off.

It was very much a pity, he felt, that he hadn't been able to get his hands on an _Anneal Blade_ ; it being the best sword to go with his best shield, it would have likely solidified Diavel's position as 'best player' if his actions as raid group leader hadn't already. But that was neither here nor there, and so clearing his thoughts in an attempt to quash the instinctual irritation he felt towards his inadequate blade, he continued the assault, shouting orders to groups that required them while killing his fair share of Sentinels at the same time.

While Diavel genuinely did believe in his fellow players and actually did mean everything he had said in his speech, it would have been a lie to say that that was all that has motivated him to rally a raid group together. In truth, the final push had been something far more selfish and, if he was honest, rather cliché. Simply put, he wanted power. Not in the way that dictators or demon lords in video games did, of course; he had no real desire to project any views or beliefs he had onto other people, nor did he relish the feeling of being served and attended to by others. No, the only reason he wanted power - and the only reason why he didn't beat himself up over his frankly rather egotistical tendencies - was because he wished to be a major player in the grand quest to free themselves from this deathtrap, and in so doing play the 'hero' he'd logged into SAO to be. Such a role would bring a degree of admiration, he supposed, but while he wouldn't lie and say none of it mattered to him the fact of the matter was that he simply wanted to make a _real_ difference in the lives of everyone else. It was a noble wish, he felt, though somewhere deep inside him he recognised it was perverted in its own way. After all, he didn't simply wish to 'contribute as much as he could', or for 'somebody to step up and lead us all to victory'. Specifically, it had to be him who filled in that role - ultimately making his desire, noble as it were, selfish at its core.

But then again, so what if it was? Everyone would benefit from his dream being achieved, after all; he wasn't so selfish as to chase power without the proper ability to use it with, but from how successful the raid was going he daresay that he was more than qualified for the position. It was why, he felt, he'd been quite so indignant when he found out that that loner Kirito had gotten his hands on the prized _Anneal Blade_ ; after all, wouldn't such a prized weapon be worth so much more in the hands of a capable leader, as opposed to a solo player? That had been his thought process at the time, before it simmered down somewhat when he realised the man - boy, he reminded himself - had found himself a companion, and seemed to be showing her the ropes. He'd let it rest after that - the whole reason he was so opposed to the idea of Kirito owning the blade had been predicated on the assumption that he'd be a solo player who wouldn't put it to any worthwhile use, after all - and though on occasion jealousy did rear it's ugly head he had tried his best to change his opinion of the m- boy.

And that was just it, wasn't it? Kirito, that infamously skilled loner of a beta tester Diavel had the displeasure of meeting during the closed beta, was really just a kid. How foolish he felt now, seeing that guy as his rival, though granted it had always been foolish before, since Kirito had never really seemed to register nor reciprocate the rivalry. To think he'd had some bizarre kind of inferiority complex to a 16 year-old who played a game better than he did...it was pathetic, really. The boy's loner tendencies, especially when his avatar hadn't properly reflected his age in the beta, really didn't do him any favours; the Kirito then gave off the impression of a smug bastard who considered himself 'too good' to party up with anyone else, which now that he thought about it was probably better chalked up to social anxiety or something rather than pride.

Now, though, Diavel knew better. While the occasional stab of irritation or jealousy, which at this point was really more a force of habit than anything, did flare up, on the whole he no longer saw any more problem with Kirito. Perhaps, Diavel considered, in another world his stubbornness would have prevented him from correcting his perceived image of the boy, but as it was the presence his companion - Yuuki, the rather loud girl had proclaimed herself - proved him not the person Diavel had thought he was. Thus, Diavel found it in himself to not only respect the boy's ability, but to also recognise that he, the de facto leader of the clearing effort, had been an utter fool before and was thus far more fallible than he had originally considered himself.

Which was why when he heard what was unmistakably Kirito's voice shout a warning, he _listened_.

It happened just after teams A and B had whittled down the boss's health to the last third of its final bar, at which point the Kobold Lord roared, and tossed it's axe and buckler to the sides, nearly squishing a few nearby players in the process. The near miss seemed to startle a few players, and while most kept their wits about them a few members began to fumble, their movements made jittery by, presumably, apprehension for what was to be the last stage of their grueling first boss battle.

That wouldn't do.

"This is the final push, everyone!" Diavel called, raising his sword in rallying triumph. "Do not falter! As long as we are able to maintain the encirclement, this victory will be ours!" In response to his cry was a chorus of affirmative return cries, followed by the crisp, clean sound of armoured bodies hunkering down, shields forward and ready for the boss's next move.

Glaring at the raid group with glowing red eyes that he could've sworn were filled with hatred, Illfang drew forth from from the scabbard on the back of its waist a great monstrosity of a blade, the kind Diavel termed 'video game practical', which was to say impractical where physics was concerned. That was the talwar, then; despite never having faced an actual floor boss herself, it looked like the Rat's information was as accurate as she claimed. Having anticipated the weapon switch, the players surrounding the boss were unfazed, and moved quickly to intercept the boss's jump, weapons shining with the light of crowd-control skills that would, if enough of them hit, would prevent the boss from breaking out of the encirclement, leaving it unable to make effective use of its new weapon.

That was when he heard it.

"Break the encirclement!" Kirito cried, voice strained from the effort, "that's not a talwar, it's a nodachi!"

It was a guttural, desperate cry that should have, by all means, captured everybody's attention, had said attention not been wholly focused on the great beast before them. Diavel, however, was in the unique position of being close enough to the boss, having been directing the players dealing with it in between killing the sentinels, to have heard the shout while, at the same time, have attention to spare as he himself was not actually fighting the boss. As such, Diavel was likely one of the few who were able to actually catch the warning though still took him a moment to process it.

That moment cost him.

The nodachi shone a blinding red, and with a howl Illfang spun on the spot, unleashing a tremendous gust of wind that threatened to push Diavel onto the ground despite the great distance between them. The large blade was swung in a large circle, and as the tank players caught the blow on their shields they were pushed back, a few of the players with lighter armour even getting knocked off their feet, flying back as large chunks were taken out of their health bars.

"Get back!" Kirito cried once more, his voice sounding hoarse by the second as he fought past the A nodachi has less damage, but better crowd control! It's strikes can easily push those without heavy armour back, and it gives Illfang access to AOE katana skills!"

 _The perfect tool for getting out of an encirclement_ , Diavel realised, cursing softly to, and at, himself. Of _course_ Kayaba would change the boss from the beta - leaving aside the man's cruel tendencies, any ordinary game developer would have done the same, especially after a reportedly easy battle during the beta. Naturally, with the boss' vulnerability to being surrounded made clear from the beta test, the devs would have given it a means to deal with such a tactic - and by banking on this exact same tactic, Diavel had set the raid group up for a nasty, and potentially lethal, surprise.

"Break the encirclement!" Diavel ordered, rushing into the fray even as he gestured for the other players to move aside."The nodachi has good area of effect, but it's slow to swing! It only has one-third of a health bar left, so a smaller group will be more effective! Lind, Astrid, with me!"

As his teammates broke away from the sentinels they were fighting with, calling for nearby players to take over and joining him in his sprint, Diavel couldn't help but find it funny that he'd ended up in such a convenient situation. The thought had crossed his mind, once, to step forward and finish the boss off by himself when it hit a low enough health, guaranteeing him the last hit bonus and solidifying his status as a hero of sorts - but, well, that plan fell more or less flat the moment he realised he'd be leading beta testers and not newbies. Because really, what would that look like? Pretentious as hell, and to particularly shrewd players perhaps even greedy, since there was bound to be a good majority who knew of last hit bonuses. As such, he'd given up on the idea, but now fate was giving him the exact chance he'd wanted…and so he jumped at it. Teams A and C, which had been taking on the boss up till now, parted like the red sea, giving their fearless leader a clear path to the boss. Unable to help but smile at the vote of confidence, Diavel began the motions for the sword skill _Strongarm Swing_ , his _Iron Glory_ 's blade shining white as he prepared to engage the boss.

It didn't even cross his mind that with nothing between him and the boss, there was nothing between the boss and him...

The first sign of things going to hell was when Illfang, who'd just a moment ago been occupied with a few players buying time for their teammates to heal, quite abruptly stopped, and zeroed its gaze on the three new players entering its attack zone. None of them knew this, of course, but to one more well-versed in the technical aspects of the game it would have been apparent that this seemingly sudden change in subject of the boss' ire had been caused, largely, because of Diavel's charged sword skill. Sword skills were, for the most part, the most aggressive actions one could take against a mob; meaning, sword skills generated the most aggro, and were the most likely to cause the mob to change its target. Of course, it wasn't as if Diavel, who himself was a beta tester, was unaware of this barely below-the-surface game mechanic - however, under normal circumstances he, who had not actually attacked the boss yet, shouldn't have gotten aggroed.

Illfang, however, was a humanoid monster, and on top of that a floor boss that had undergone a phase change at critical health; this meant that, unlike most other mobs, it in its current state actually categorised sword skills aimed at it, regardless of whether they were yet to hit it, as top-priority threats. Of course, being a rather skilled beta tester himself Diavel was aware of the existence of this mechanic, but on the other hand hadn't thought of Illfang's AI as any different from that of the sentinels, which despite being of the same species did not possess such a mechanic. To Diavel's credit, that Illfang underwent both an aggro wipe as well as a reclassification of its threat table at critical health was hitherto unknown knowledge, another new addition to the boss battle that had been added after the beta.

It was thus that none of them were prepared for the boss' sudden leap straight upwards into the air, Diavel only able to widen his eyes in shock before a great gust of wind exploded outwards from where the giant had stood, the marble-like floor cracking under the pressure of the jump. With frighteningly agility that no one would have expected of the great beast, Illfang began to leap to and from the walls of the long hallway, creating a confusing zigzag of afterimages as it sped up, which had many a player looking up at it in bewilderment. This bewilderment spelt Diavel's doom, however, when the kobold lord planted its feet not on a wall, but on the ceiling, rocketing downwards towards him with a triumphant howl.

The impact was gargantuan, the sword creating an explosion as it hit the ground, sending Astrid and Lind flying. Diavel, however, wasn't so lucky; having been the target of the attack, he was not thrown to the side but to the back, and before he could hit the ground Illfang dashed forth with an unnatural grace.

He wasn't even given time to cry out.

There was a rush of wind, and before he could fully process what was happening a red gash placed itself on his chest. A spike of panic shot through him as he himself shot even faster through the air, before even the time for that was denied.

The beast skidded to a stop, spinning on the spot to catch his blue-haired victim with his blade in the spine. Having been hit at an angle, Diavel was sent crashing to the ground, his health bar a blood red, the three deadly hits having taken it all the way down from the firm dark green of a full health bar. Illfang wasn't finished, however, and roared as it raised its blade up, ready to deliver the final and most powerful strike of the 4-hit sword skill.

There was a final moment, in which there could be found a window of opportunity for escape; however, having been denied time to process exactly what happened in the scant few seconds between the start of the assault and now, Diavel found his mind barely catching up to the present, unable to properly command his limbs to move him out of the way, even if he had thought of it. As it was, Diavel could only process one thing; the blinding red light, crashing down towards him...

* * *

Yuuki dashed through the crowd, leaping up and over anything that happened to be in her way before continuing her dead sprint towards her destination. She thought she heard someone call out to her some distance away, but she ignored it; or rather, she didn't fully notice it, so single-mindedly focused on her objective she was. Her _Onyx Slasher_ shone a brilliant purple as she held it at her side, the skill it was tied to prepared but held back, the final motions for its execution incomplete.

The boss was still some distance away, but already its large blade was held above its head, beginning its descent towards the ground - and the blue-haired man who lay on it. Its impact was imminent; in a mere second, the boss would reach.

But then again, so would Yuuki _._

She'd have liked to think time seemed to slow, but in truth it all happened in a blur, everything moving so fast her conscious mind had trouble keeping up with the events that followed. One moment the boss had been rapidly approaching - at least, from her perspective - and the next she was straining her own blade against the boss's. As a general rule, all melee-based attacks could be blocked, diverted or parried, but it was much harder to do so when the attack was a sword skill. It was made substantially easier to do so, however, by countering with another sword skill: yet if Yuuki didn't know better she'd have called bull, since the boss's blade threatened to crush her even as her own shone with the power of a skill.

 _I'm not going to be able to repel this,_ she realised, _nor will I be able to hold it up for much longer._ Yuuki glanced at the blue-haired man who lay at her feet, dazed but conscious, and only just beginning to scrabble to his feet.

Her mind raced; could she hold it long enough for Diavel to get up and away? The instantaneous answer that came before the question could be fully articulated was _no_ , for Yuuki felt her muscles strain and knew she wouldn't be able to hold for any more than a second longer, while Diavel was still more or less situated at her feet. He wouldn't make it.

Frustration welled up within her, and with a strained cry she diverted the boss's blade to the left, lunging to the side and out of the way as the pillar of steel acquainted itself to the ground, a blast of energy radiating outwards from the area of impact. As she leapt, she _tackled_ the man, who had only just begun to stand up, and the rest of the distance the two covered was taken care of by the blast, which sent Yuuki rocketing towards a wall.

It cracked against the impact; the wall, that was, but as far as Yuuki could tell it might as well have been her _spine_ , the pain sharp enough to cause her to cry out even with SAO's pain dampeners in place. Her health bar scrolled down, stopping when at least twenty percent of her max HP was clipped off of it. She paid it no heed, however, as she scrambled to check on the blue-haired man who had landed next to her.

To her horror, however, it was scrolling down, albeit much more slowly compared to the pace at which hers had; she wasted no time, instantly materialising a healing crystal in her hand with but a thought.

"Heal!"

The crystal glowed, a warmth diffusing throughout her hand as a light took over the crystal's form. With a soft clink, the crystal shattered.

Unfortunately, so did Diavel.

She didn't see it happen. Usually, before something died in SAO, it's features would be consumed by a bright light, before bulging outwards and shattering into polygons. There wasn't any of that here - or rather, if there was, Yuuki had perceived none of it. Maybe her eyes had flicked to the health crystal in her hand, or maybe it had all been too fast for her to properly comprehend. Whatever it was, one moment she'd been looking down at the body of a man she'd thought she'd saved, and the next she was staring, shocked, at the rapidly dissipating particles before her.

 _I was… too late?_

No. No, that… that was just too cruel. Wasn't it? She'd been so close. A text box popped up next to the crystal that was now back in her hand, the words within it reading "Error: Target not found".

Target not found? What did it mean, target not found? The target had been right in front of her. He'd been right there. Right in front of her, when she'd commanded the item to heal him. But it didn't.

He was dead.

A roar shook the ground, and panicked voices began to rise all around the boss room. Cries of confusion, anger, denial - _fear,_ replaced the formerly self-assured chorus of shouts that had filled the air before, and it was plain to anyone who heard them that - one-third of a health bar to victory or not - the raid had gone straight to hell. Perhaps, for some, it'd been Illfang's truly terrifying display of speed and power that caused them to scream. Perhaps for some others it had been the loss of their leader, and the comfort of the sound judgements and orders he'd provided.

For most, however, it had been the loss of a life, of a fellow human being - and with it, the blindfold to their own mortality that their late raid leader had worked so hard to cultivate. With the burst of polygons that signified Diavel's death came the shattering of an illusion - and with the shattering of this illusion came the collapse of the individual, as players were rudely awoken to the harsh, cold truth; that the same thing could very well happen to them. That it had been Diavel, the very same man who had assured their survival to be the first to bite the dust perhaps added to the panic with its irony; this, combined with the loss of both his perceived leadership as well as his personal charisma to mitigate the disaster, meant that the raid was, for the lack of a better word, absolutely _fucked_. To the few who had managed to keep their cool in the face of Diavel's death, the screams that followed in its wake might as well have been a herald of the end-times.

Yuuki heard none of it.

Diavel - she couldn't claim to have known him all that well, of course, since the closest they'd come to speaking was when she interjected during that cactus-guy's rant...but none of that really mattered. All that did was, at the end of the day, he had been a fellow human being; a being who hadn't deserved to have his life so cruelly cut short. His life, with its uncountable experiences and infinite possibilities, snuffed out in but a single moment...

 _Just like so many others, on the day the sky turned red._

 _Right,_ Yuuki found herself thinking in an odd moment of clarity, _this was that kind of game, wasn't it?_

There was another roar; a great, soul-shaking sound, accompanied by a crisp, clean and yet far deadlier _shing_ of a blade in motion.

Two words snapped Yuuki out of her stupour.

"YUUKI, _**MOVE**_!"

And move she did.

An explosion of sound assaulted her ears and a cloud of dust obscured her vision, but even as her senses were overwhelmed with the sudden influx of sensory input her body kicked into overdrive. A wall of steel could be seen through the dust, but it was moving away - no, the rush of air at her back told her that it was _her_ that was moving away from _it_. That wouldn't do: she couldn't slash, stab and rend the remains of its health bar without getting closer, and every moment that thing was still standing it was going to hurt someone _else_.

A solution to that problem presented itself when a sharp, indescribable instinct flared up at what felt like the back of her neck, and Yuuki was alerted to the fact that there was _something_ behind her. Without missing a beat she angled her feet towards it, and as her boots were acquainted with the hard stone of a pillar she bent her knees - absorbing the impact and minimising the tickling down of her health bar, though in truth neither were really her targets for the action. Kicking out, she rocketed forwards and back towards the monster, her sword leaving a trail of dazzling purple as she held it in a two-handed grip behind her. With a cry, Yuuki unleashed _Dash-Cut_ , giving the boss an angry red gash on its snout.

There was another roar, but this one, while louder, bespoke of very different emotions, if the simulated mannerisms of Illfang were even able to replicate such. The monster reared its head back, it's angry red eyes flashing the colour of its wound as it snarled, and once again Illfang extracted it's sword from the crevice it had made in the ground - though the damage quickly repaired itself once contact was lost with the blade that caused it - and once again made to swing it.

Conveniently, _Dash-Cut_ , being a game-logic heavy skill that bled away momentum prematurely so as to ensure one didn't end up too far away from one's opponent after passing by them at ludicrous, system-assisted speeds, arrested Yuuki's fall without so much as a sliver off of her health bar. Pivoting on one foot in a manner that would have guaranteed a sprain in real life, Yuuki rocketed back towards Illfang, the tip of the boss' large blade crashing harmlessly into the space she had occupied before.

Yuuki made to plunge her blade into the boss' barely guarded belly, only to click her tongue in annoyance when she found her arms locked into place at her side, as was the ending position for _Dash-Cut_. Finding herself unable to change direction in time, Yuuki slid downwards and through the larger creature's legs - much like how one might perform a sliding tackle - and spun once, turning her entire body around and circumventing the restrictive effects of her post-skill pause. Movement returning to her arms, Yuuki completed her spin and, as soon as she faced the beast once more, shot back towards it. This time her running stab was successfully performed, her _Onyx Slasher_ burying itself into Illfang's belly as a red glow began to emanate from the silver and black of her blade. A second later she leapt, or rather shot upward, giving the boss a vertical line running straight up the length of its torso. Yuuki spun in mid air, transitioning seamlessly from her rising slash to a spinning one through the effects of her two-hit sword skill _Guillotine_ , and with her sword shining a blinding red she shot downwards towards the hideous beast, delivering the spinning slash at the nape of its neck and hopping off of it before it could throw her off. Landing in a crouch behind it, Yuuki pivoted on her heel, ignoring the sharp pain from her imperfect landing to dash forwards, darting through Illfang's legs once more. Just because it worked earlier and she didn't see any way for the large monster to avoid it, Yuuki spun once again, slashing at its calves and presumably earning more roars of fury; at this point she couldn't hear a damn thing, not with all the adrenaline.

She'd felt adrenaline before, of course - though not very often due to her condition IRL - but never quite like this. As she hacked and slashed and dodged around the boss she felt an odd sense of clarity, a bizarre, single-minded focus that somehow allowed her to chain her erratic movements together in a deadly dance of steel and light. Compared to her, Illfang's movements were sluggish - every heavy, lumbering swing was slow and predictable, and every wasted strike was a chance to shave the boss' health bar down another tick. Needless to say, Yuuki took full advantage of those chances, and began her assault in earnest.

A slash on its flank, transitioning into a rolling, leaking stab in its back. A _Brandish_ to parry a blow and get two hits on its belly, followed by a frontal flip onto the boss' shoulder, stabbing down on it as she landed. Stepping onto the boss' blade when it made to sweep at her legs, and running up its length only to jump off at the last moment, twisting in midair to deliver a _Slashwave_ that ran down the length of Illfang's body, followed by yet another spin slash through the boss' legs shortly after she landed. Over, under and all around it she slashed and stabbed, the Kobold Lord unable to keep up with her movements with all its size, much like how a human being struggles to hit a fly. Eventually, the Kobold Lord succumbed to its wounds. The last of its health bar emptied, the great beast's blade fell from its hands, before both it and it's weapon were consumed by light, and shattered into polygons. There was a pregnant pause as Yuuki stood there, motionless as the particles dissipated around her like so much snow. Then, with a fanfare coming seemingly out of nowhere the word ' **Congratulations!'** was interposed on the air above her head, and a loot window opened itself before her as proof of the boss being slain.

There was another pause, and then, the cheering began.

* * *

The sight that greeted them right out the gate was a breathtaking one. Perhaps done so by design, the first floor's exit was opened up into a cliff, giving weary players a beautiful view of the landscape of the floor they had just opened. A great, sprawling plain was laid out before them, the vibrant green of the grass rejuvenating to eyes that had spent the last two hours in the relative darkness of a cave, and beyond that was a savanna - marked so by the trees and non-grass plant life that was interspersed throughout the area. Enjoying the view was one 14 year-old girl, who apparently was possessed by the spirit of a sword god if he heard those other players right.

"Excuse my presumptuousness, oh Maiden of the Absolute Sword, but may I ask if a humble swordsman such as me may take a seat next to your radiant self?" he teased, taking a page out of Zest's book faux-gentlemanly language. To his surprise, his partner actually got a little flustered, though to her credit she recovered well.

"Oh my god, not you too. In my defence I never asked for all the nicknames - though I have to admit, 'Absolute Sword' sounds pretty cool. Just drop the 'Maiden' thing, thanks," she answered, absently patting a spot next to her, which Kirito took gladly.

They sat in silence for a while.

"Yuuki," Kirito finally said, breaking the silence. "Is there...is there anything you want to say?"

The words felt stupid the moment they left his mouth. Vague as hell, and coming out of nowhere like that he wasn't surprised when Yuuki turned to look at him with a puzzled look. "Huh?" she very eloquently asked for clarification.

"I mean…" Kirito struggled to find the words. "Back there. Illfang. Just...are you alright? You know you can tell me anything."

There was another moment of silence as she regarded him, before a small smile crept onto her face.

"Yeah, obviously. I just soloed a floor boss, you know? Sort of, anyway, but I feel so high on life right now. It feels like I can do anything," laughing lightly, she turned back to admire the view before them. "How could I not be fine?"

Quite abruptly Yuuki stood up, and stretching slightly as she said something about meeting back up with Asuna, to which Kirito nodded and said he'd catch up. Parting with a jab at his anti-socialness, his partner turned and walked away.

Not once did she turn back.

Not once did her steps falter.

Not once did she talk about a man dying in her hands, and not once did she address the emotions that had led to her soloing, sort of, a floor boss. Not once did she show any signs of the vulnerable girl, eyes wide and hands shaking, kneeling in shock as as particles of a man she failed to save dissipated before her eyes.

As if none of that had ever happened - as if everything was all fine and dandy, Yuuki walked away, not a trace of care or worry in her steps. She even whistled a tune, further down the path…

Despite everything that happened, Yuuki was acting just as per normal.

And Kirito couldn't tell the difference.

* * *

 **So, uh, I'm back. Surprise?**

 **Let me just start this off by saying I legitimately had no idea my last update wae last year. Reason being, I'd continued writing well into, like, March or April this year before school finally started to take up the rest of my time - Junior College is** _trash_ **, by the way, at least compared to secondary school - so, well, I didn't actually realise it'd been a whole whopping half a year since my last update.**

 **Whoops.**

 **Though, it really does hearten me to now that people still read my story, even then. For those of you who are still here, thanks for waiting! For those of you who're just joining us, I apologise in advance for the long waits to come. School is a bitch, but if it brings you all any comfort I've pledged myself to complete the writing of certain scenes in this story - and a good few of them are really, really far down the road, but since these scenes are what inspired the writing of this fic in the first place I'm not going to easily give up on them. And, really, if I can get this story past its opening stages I sure as hell am going to finish it.**

 **This chapter was inordinately hard to write, to be honest. For one, it was a heavy, pretty damn important chapter, and secondly I just couldn't decide whether to kill Diavel off or not. Full transparency here; he was always supposed to die originally, but I'd entertained the idea of letting him live for quite a while before I finally decided back on this just because I'd already written it. I'm still not all too sure of the quality of this chapter, to be honest, but reading over chapters 1 to 5 once again after all this time has made me realise just how easily it is to cringe at my own work when it's just written. Giving it some time and reading it over from the eyes of a reader, sort of, I just sort of decided what I, as the author consider not ideal may just be good enough. And really, unless its one of _those_ scenes, which this story was written purely to contain(not really, but close enough), I don't quite see the point of giving myself grief over perfecting every chapter. Besides, writing this one over and over got boring eventually, till I tried a new angle and wrote Diavel's perspective for a bit there. All insight into his character there was gleaned from the SAO wiki, lol, I never read the novels and the anime didn't explore Diavel's character like at all, except for when he died that was. Of course, I took some very, very creative license to make him less vindictive, but that's neither here nor there; it's not the first time I've made liberal use of said license.**

 **Fair warning for the future, I'm not actually sure what goes into the chapter after this one. Oh, I know where the story is going of course - I'm not _totally_ winging this - but before I can get there I need more filler, to put it bluntly. I need more time for the characters to interact and endear themselves to you guys, before I can get to where I actually planned. I'll try to not do a repeat of this whole 6(7?) month wait thing, but without a fully developed idea in my head I can't say if that'll work out. Plus, school.**

 **All in all, I really do hope you enjoy this chapter, because holy shit this was by far the hardest to write. Why can't I have a repeat of chapter four, where the words came semi-naturally and resulted in a perfectly satisfactory chapter...**

 **Remembertofavereviewandfollow!**

 **~Ace (Did I use to do this?)**


	7. The Faintest of Trembles

**Gaaaaaaah! That took AGES! But school is out for the year - I mean, I still have homework to do, but I'm not touching that till December, at least. This chapter was meant to be a bridging chapter to get us on to the next arc, but, well, things happened, and suddenly this is the longest chapter I've ever written. And this is AFTER cutting out an opening segment, which I plan to use in a later chapter. Damn.**

 **Well, enjoy!**

* * *

"Caaaaaaaaake!"

Yuuki spun, sword shining red with power as she shot downwards, nailing the «Trembling Cow» straight in the neck with «Guillotine». The cow, true to its name, trembled - before bursting apart into a shower of polygons, a large menu detailing the spoils of her kill silently opening itself in front of her.

Yuuki wasted no time in going through it.

"I have obtained it!" She shouted in glee not a second later, "cake!"

Or, rather, «Trembling Milk», as the drop was apparently called - did _everything_ about this cow tremble? - but, eh, it would be cake soon enough.

 _«Tremble Shortcake». You know, just what is it with cows and trembling-_

"There is no way that should have worked," Kirito deadpanned, flicking his sword to the side before returning it into its back-bound scabbard with a flourish. "The thing was _5 meters tall_. There's just no way _«Guillotine»_ lets you jump up that high. I don't care what you did to Illfang; even he was about half this thing's height."

"Well, she _did_ seem to be running up its side," Asuna commented, sheathing her rapier with much less flair, but no less elegance in the simple motion. "Maybe that gave her some extra distance?"

"Got it in one, Asunachi!" Yuuki laughed, her menu blinking close with a stray thought cast it's way. "It's like I always say; walls are just vertical floors."

"I mean," Kirito started, "you're not wrong, but - "

"So are the sides of large cows, for that matter," Yuuki continued, unperturbed by the interruption. "And I thought _you_ were the beta tester, Kirito. Your whole schtick was knowing all the ins and outs of the mechanics in this game; if your beta tester knowledge is falling off already, you might be useless to us soon enough."

Kirito did a double take at that, but to his credit recovered quickly. "I'd like to take a moment to remind you," he coughed, trying his hardest to look as if he _hadn't_ been utterly blindsided by Yuuki's sudden burn, "of who you owe it to for the _Tremble Shortcake_ you're about to have."

Yuuki blinked. "Argo, for telling us about it?"

" ...well, yes," he gave, "though technically I introduced you to her, and all...but what I meant to say was, don't you remember who planned out this farming route? No, wait, don't answer that," Kirito held up a hand before she could get in another response, "it was a rhetorical question, Yuuki, and the right answer you no doubt were _not_ going to say is _me_. If there's one thing I pride myself in its farming efficiency, and you can't take that away from me."

"Can and will," Yuuki grinned impishly back, before she broke into laughter at Kirito's frankly distraught expression. "Jeez, relax, Kirito!" she giggled. Really, he could be so dramatic. "It was a joke, a joke. Your farming is top-notch, and I appreciate the effort you put into planning out a route for us. Happy?"

Patronising as she sounded, it was the truth; after all, Argo - an information broker Kirito had known from the beta, apparently - had made it clear just how long the tedious process of killing _Trembling Ox_ mobs in the hopes of spawning a _Trembling Cow_ could take, and she wasn't so naive as to think that their relatively short farming trip indicated any exaggeration on Argo's part. It was clear from the sheer amount of EXP and Col they were gaining that Kirito's prided farming efficiency - though it sounded quite sad to have _farming efficiency_ be a thing to be proud of - was no joke. And, like she said, she appreciated it.

But, she mused, gratitude was best shown, not spoken; and with the little present she'd given her partner she felt her gratitude was clear enough without having to say it aloud - though obviously she did anyway, since Kirito could be dense like that. The «Coat of Midnight»- she wasn't sure what link a black coat had with the half-naked dog-beast that dropped it, but hey, it had good stats. It also looked _swanky_ , and would certainly look better on any player than whatever actual equipment the big lug was wearing. It also gave a pretty substantial boost to the «Hiding» skill, which was, well, cool, but she didn't really see it gaining much use on _her_ of all people.

Because, you know, she was subtle enough to not need it.

Plus, Kirito had been eyeing it since she first showed it to him, and to be completely honest it fit him a lot better than it did her. Coats were for the tall, dark, broody types - none of which technically described Kirito, actually, but he was _just_ close enough to meeting each criteria that it ended up looking good anyway. On her, well...the bit below the waist looked nice, at least. She kind of liked how it splayed out in the breeze, but that was about it.

"W-well, as long as you're aware," Kirito coughed, looking away. A bit of red dusted his cheeks, and he cursed as Yuuki's sniggers gave away that she noticed.

"I don't think your...usefulness, for lack of a better term, is in question, Kirito-kun," Asuna smiled with mirth, seeming to take their byplay as some form of amusement, "though if you still worry for your continued place on this team, I would suggest plying your two lovely teammates here with sweets. It's a simple quest that you already have all the materials for, after all; why not go ahead and cash it in?"

Both Kirito and Yuuki shared a snort of laughter at that, especially since neither of them missed how Asuna had casually inserted herself into the bribe as well. It wasn't lost on either of them how much Asuna apparently loved, or at least missed, confectionary - she was, after all, by far the most enthusiastic about their little sidequest. Yuuki was perhaps more vocal about it, but to be honest she was putting it on a bit; she didn't actually like cake all that much, being more of a hamburg or curry kind of girl herself. Asuna, though? The mere mention of cake the other day had her eyes lighting up, and she'd been visibly restraining herself from showing her obvious delight at the prospect of it, not that she'd succeeded.

To be honest, she felt kind of cheated by how great an emotional response the mention of cake could bring out in the girl; what had their duel in the town square been for, then? She could've just mentioned cake and Asuna's problem would've been solved right then and there.

 _'I didn't come here to eat good food' my foot. I should've just plopped some higher-class food in front of you and tested the theory right then and there. Chances are if I went with something a bit beyond a cream bun, you'd have folded immediately._

But, eh, hindsight was 20/20, and totally not her style. What Konno Yuuki did was look to the future - and right now her future had cake in it. And, again, she really was more of a hamburg kind of girl, but for the lack of hamburg and a thorough sickness of boar, cake at the moment sounded wonderful.

Banter exhausted, the trio made for Urbus in relative silence, and having more or less killed all the hostile mobs in the area at least three times over they reached the town in less than 15 minutes, though their decision to make use of their superhuman in-game stamina to run a part of the way in an effort to make it before the lunch rush likely factored into the final timing they clocked. Having woken up bright and early - 8.30, they weren't crazy - to monopolise the fields where «Trembling Ox» mobs spawned, they'd finished farming at about 11.40, which left them susceptible to the lunch rush if they took their time getting back to town. It was funny how the lunch rush even existed, considering how different lifestyles were here compared to IRL, but upon her pointing it out Kirito had made the fairly logical argument that most players were simply sticking to the mealtimes they were familiar with, and that it was likely that given autonomy with their time, players likely structured their new lifestyles of killing monsters and stuff between familiar timestamps like mealtimes, as opposed to the other way around. What's more, Asuna had also pitched in during that conversation, with no one really having levelled the cooking skill much, literally everyone who ate at a specific time would be eating out at that time, as opposed to in real life where perhaps half of those people ate their meals at home and didn't clog up the restaurants.

They needn't have worried, though, as the restaurant they were headed to - and which was the only one that served the cake, should one procure the ingredients for the recipe to be unlocked - was fairly out of the way, tucked in the northeast corner of Urbus where the main inns pointedly _weren't_ located. Hooray for small mercies, Yuuki cheered to herself, though she felt bad for the secluded shop and it's lack of customers. It was NPC run, of course, but an empty store was just sad, in a way.

 _Though if they need players to gather ingredients to gain access to a menu item, I can kinda see why…_

All thoughts criticising the store vanished the moment she laid eyes upon the cake, however, which was brought to their table by the kindly old NPC woman who supposedly ran the place. To put it lightly, it was _beautiful_. It had a radius of approximately 20 centimeters, and was about as tall as half of that. It had four layers - _four!_ \- that went, from top to bottom, sponge, strawberry, sponge, strawberry, and had a bright red strawberry sitting at the very top of it. It was the sort of gorgeous masterpiece that wouldn't look out of place in display cabinets, and despite herself Yuuki found it hard to bring herself to actually cut into it. Asuna, too, seemed reluctant to actually destroy the confectionary's beautiful visage, before Kirito stuck his knife into it and promptly regretted his life choices at the death stares the both of them gave him. It was the cue for them all to dig in, however, and the two girls were more than happy to let their teammate's little mistake slip when they found themselves staring down at not-inconsiderable portions served onto their plates, courtesy of an apologetic Kirito.

With the long-awaited dessert set before her, Yuuki wasted no time in taking her first bite. With some excitement she poked into it with her fork, enjoying the way the spongy top layer flexed lightly under its touch before gently being pierced, and upon fully liberating the piece from the larger whole she stuck it into her mouth, and was instantly teleported into another dimension.

Or, at least her mouth was, but it wouldn't have been a lie to say that she _felt_ the taste with her entire body. An explosion of sweetness assaulted her taste buds, so suddenly and brutally that were it not for the faint, underlying sourness of the strawberry she'd have gotten instant diabetes just from the sheer sensations on her tongue, simulated sugar or not. Between the soft, delicate sponge was the almost sinfully luxurious texture of cream, so generously lathered that it almost felt wrong to taste so much of it. Almost, of course, because all things considered there could be nothing wrong with something that felt so _right._

"Deliiiiiicious!" Yuuki squealed, holding her cheeks with joy and almost poking her eye out with her fork. Luckily, neither of her teammates were in any state to notice and call her out on it, being just as preoccupied with their shares as she was. Even Kirito seemed inordinately impressed, which was quite a feat considering the cake's lack of sharp edges and an attack stat.

"This is really good, actually," he said, surprised, staring at his slice with raised eyebrows as if he hadn't expected it to taste quite as good as it did. "Not what I expected from a second floor restaurant, for sure. No wonder why Argo wanted pay for this…" his musings were cut off as he, quite hastily, shoved another piece into his mouth, and nodded slowly at the impressive taste.

"Understatement of the century," Asuna replied while licking her lips, abandoning any pretense of calm or indifference as she all but melted in bliss. "Ah, it's really been too long~ To think that a dessert like this would be found on a grasslands floor, of all places."

 _Right?_ Yuuki felt like saying. She still had cake in her mouth, though, and she couldn't bring herself to rush her savouring of it. "Right?" she agreed when she finally swallowed, "probably the most welcome surprise since that one time Kirito tripped off a ledge and found the rare flower monster we were hunting for."

"Which we both agreed not to talk about," Kirito cut in, washing down some cake with a glass of water, "and in my defence, it was dark and I was tired. Also, I didn't _trip_ per se; one of the «Little Nepenthes» we were fighting tripped me up with a vine, so it's more accurate to say that I _was_ tripped, rather than tripping myself."

"TL;Dr, he tripped," Yuuki finished, "and we found the one monster we spent all night looking for. Good times." She pointedly ignored Kirito's scowl - it was more of a pout, really - and instead turned to look at a lightly giggling Asuna. "It's just kind of a shame, though. This cake is great and all - amazing, wonderful, superb and other words like that - but it's kind of painful that we had to sacrifice what, over a _litre_ of cream for this thing. A flipping _litre_ ," she emphasised, putting her hands before her as if she were holding a square block of what she estimated to be a litre of cream. "That's bigger than this entire cake, actually. Did they compress the cream here or something? None of this makes _any_ sense."

"Glowing swords and monsters are perfectly reasonable, but _that's_ where you draw the line," Kirito drawled, looking at her with a single raised eyebrow. "Not that I don't see where you're coming from, I guess, but it was most likely designed this way as a joke. Seeing how little cream is actually needed in real life cakes, they probably had to exaggerate the amount of cream needed for it anyway, and decided to go with an amount ridiculous enough to be funny."

"Kayaba?" Asuna asked, throwing the name out like one might a slur. "Funny?"

"Unlikely," Kirito agreed, "but as far as I'm aware he was in charge of the game's systems, working on FullDive, Cardinal and all that. As for the game design itself, well, Cardinal takes care of most of it, but the principles it runs on was based off of a team of real-life developers who helped with the project. The man was a scientist, and a developer; his technology was applied to a game, but he himself was never a game designer."

"Anyhow," Yuuki continued, "my point is that I now lack cream. Which thus means no cream buns." She nodded grimly at both of her teammates, who seemed to not recognise the seriousness of the issue. "No, seriously. I've been snacking on those things every day, and I think I have an addiction. I still have enough cream for a three days' supply, but if I don't get my fix after that I might just go into withdrawal."

Kirito rolled his eyes. "You're _clearly_ exaggerating."

"I've been treating myself to one _every farming session_. I've snacked on more of those than I've had proper meals."

"Now now," Asuna cut in, fighting back a smile as she played mediator between the two, "in all fairness, Kirito-kun, Yuuki _does_ seem to exert herself quite a lot more when she fights, given all the flips and movement she tends to do. Perhaps an easy source of sustenance she can have on-demand is more valuable than we give it credit for. And as for you, Yuuki, we can go run that quest a few times the next time we visit Sasha in the Town of Beginnings. For now though, if there are no buns…" she paused, cutting a slice off of the cake and offering it to Yuuki, "let them eat cake!"

"...sorry, Asunachi," Yuuki smiled sheepishly while gladly accepting the proffered goods, "but I don't get it. What did that last sentence mean?"

"As expected, humour really isn't my forte…" Asuna sighed wryly in response. "It was a history joke, I suppose. A reference to a French Queen - Marie Antoinette - who didn't understand why the peasantry lacking bread was a problem, asking why they couldn't just eat cake instead. It's an anecdote usually referenced as an egregious example of how those in more advantageous positions in life cannot relate to those who are not, though technically there is no historical record of Queen Antoinette's having actually said it," she explained, smiling wryly. "It was just my attempt at a joke. As I thought, I'm not all too good at it, so ignore me."

At that, Yuuki paused in her imaginary beard-stroking and almost frantically began waving her hands about. "Oh, no, don't go around saying that, Asunachi," she laughed lightly. "You're just a bit too learned for your target audience, that's all. Really, if you think about it, it's kinda my fault for being ignorant that the joke didn't land."

Asuna did a half-wince, tilting her head and smiling in a way that told her she didn't need to patronise her so much, but that she'd accept the words anyway. Kirito then chimed in with a complaint about how she'd never shown quite so much concern when _he_ made a joke that didn't land, at which point she called him a huge nerd and shoved a slice of cake into his pouting face, sharing a laugh with Asuna as the boy tried way too hard to stay grumbly while stuffing his face with the most delicious damn thing in existence.

Their conversation dwindled after a while, cutting out entirely when they all realised they were each down to their last slice, and silence reigned as they all decided to divert their remaining brain capacity into savouring and committing to memory the heavenly taste of their dessert. Before long the whole glorious thing was gone, replaced instead by a sense of profound satisfaction in, Yuuki felt, not just her stomach, but her entire being. In real life that might have been quite literal, given the frankly ridiculous amount of cream that was in it, but as it was all she could feel in her blood was joy. Which, in a way, could equate to sugar - so she _could_ technically have diabetes after all, but that was neither here nor there.

Her mind had stayed blank for the third minute of pure, silent bliss before Kirito abruptly stood up, and declared that they were heading back out.

"Already?" Asuna complained, an action so out of character for her that it was clear Yuuki hadn't been the only one profoundly affected by the cake. "Not that I mind, of course, but it seems a bit hasty to head back out there when we just finished our meal, at the end of a three hour long farming session no less."

"Yeah, Kirito," Yuuki agreed, "it's not as if we have to work any extra fat off, or anything. Killing monsters is cool, but I say it can wait. I just feel like savouring the moment right now, you know? Kick back and enjoy the simpler pleasures, and all that."

"Believe you me I'd like nothing more than to do just that," Kirito agreed sighing lightly as he tapped at the air, presumably manipulating his menu, "but we can relax later. I've just received a message from the clearing groups."

 _That_ caught her attention, and with more haste than was strictly necessary Yuuki lurched forward in her seat.

"Did they find the boss room already?" Asuna asked, beating her to the punch. "I thought they'd only opened up the labyrinth a few days ago. Surely it wasn't that easily cleared?"

"No, no, of course not, " Kirito answered, much to Yuuki's relief. "They've just found a quest, a rather important one that we thought was supposed to be locked till the 3rd floor. Here, take a look." As Kirito checked the visibility box and materialised his menu for them to see, Yuuki and Asuna both leaned in, to find…

"Who's this 'Klein'-san?" Asuna questioned, crinkling her nose in confusion "and why's he begging you for lessons?"

"Crap, wrong message," Kirito cursed, and Yuuki had to stifle her giggles at the frantic motions that followed. "It's just a guy Yuuki and I met on launch day, don't mind it. Here, this is the one," he said, flicking his finger to spin the menu back around to face them. "The sender is the new leader of the clearing effort, apparently someone who worked closely with Diavel before and during the organisation of the last raid. He's not a beta tester, at least I don't think so, but he managed to prove himself quite capable by leading the raid against the field boss. Granted, the _Bulbous Bow_ was never a particularly difficult boss, but he apparently made quite an impressive showing nonetheless."

 _Diavel_ \- the name sent a momentary shiver down her spine, but it thankfully went unnoticed as she hid the involuntary motion in the act of leaning further forwards to read off of her partner's screen.

 _Dear all,_ it read, _while exploring the 2nd floor labyrinth, the clearing groups have chanced upon an NPC, which sources say should, by right, be found on the 3rd floor instead, but has apparently been moved down to the 2nd since the beta. Upon interaction with the NPC the clearing groups have uncovered the «For Unity»_ _side quest. It is a fairly simple hunt quest, with a mini boss to be fought at the end. Information from the beta, and the quest description itself, point to this being a prerequisite for «Guild»_ _creation_.

 _Needless to say, this quest has been accorded the highest priority, and we ask of all members of the clearing effort to gather at the entrance to the 2nd floor labyrinth at 12.30pm sharp to partake in the clearing of this quest. As the quest was originally slated for the 3rd floor, it is unknown if the difficulty of it will be fully scaled down to our 2nd floor stats; for this reason, we ask that all participating members be at least level 10 or above, to better ensure everyone's safety._

 _Participation is, of course, optional, but those of the recommended level are strongly encouraged to contribute to this quest._

 _Consumable items will not be provided._

 _Sincerely,_

 _Lind_

"Guilds, huh?" Asuna commented. "Never thought of joining one, but I suppose organisation is always important in the undertaking of any real challenge, especially one as grand as clearing the game. Perhaps unity under the banner of one will encourage more players to join the clearing effort; our current arrangement is hardly an official one, after all."

"Right," Kirito agreed, nodding. "Exactly everything you just said, actually. Membership is okay now, but on the upper floors there's just a lot more to do; dungeons, quests and the like, which will all require more manpower than the clearing groups currently has. That's probably why Lind is in such a rush to have the quest cleared and Guild organised, anyway. While 12.30 is cutting it pretty close, I can sort of understand the reason for his impatience. It means we have to leave _now,_ however, so as loathe as I am to start moving again after so grueling a farming session, we're going to have to if we want to make it in time."

Yuuki groaned at that, but stood up anyway. There was no real heat behind it, though; in truth, she didn't actually mind going back out and killing some monsters. It was fun, after all, to have an outlet with which to release her energy; energy that had built up after years of having a body too weak to use any of it. A month or so of daily fighting wasn't nearly enough to bleed that all away.

They got up to pay their bill - only to be pleasantly surprised to find that on top of the cake recipe for aspiring cooks, the cake they had eaten was free of charge as a part of the quest reward - and without further delay, headed to the teleport gate in the town square.

* * *

Despite how the entire floor was a grassland, the entrance to the labyrinth was still a cave.

She didn't know what to make of it. Granted, it was hidden in a forest - and not just sitting there in the middle of a flat plain - but it still felt out of place, somehow. She said as much, to which Kirito replied with a fairly comprehensive rundown of Aincrad's lore in what suspiciously sounded like an exposition dump.

"Each floor of Aincrad was a circle cut out from a fictional land, which is what gives them each unique biomes and scenery," he lectured, "however, the labyrinths are essentially glorified stairwells from one floor to the next, and are not actually part of any of these biomes that were supposedly cut out from the land."

Such was the in-lore explanation, anyway; as for the actual reason, it was common consensus that labyrinths were all samey looking dungeons because the game designers threatened to riot if they had to create 100 unique mazes for players to explore on top of everything else that was on Aincrad. Of course, Kirito argued that Cardinal could have taken care of the brunt of that - because of _course_ he would - and the true reason was simply to make them easily identifiable for what they were, so that players knew which dungeon would lead them to the next floor.

A group of players stood outside the entrance, milling about and chatting amongst themselves. It was obvious from a glance that it was the clearing group, if only because of the group's size and the unlikelihood of there being two separate groups of players who'd all had business in this exact place at this exact time. It wasn't as large as the raid group that had taken part in Illfang's raid, not by a long shot - as important as the quest was, it just didn't require as much manpower as a boss raid did, and besides that she had a feeling that the suddenness of the summons impacted the turnout as well. That, plus the comparatively open space they were gathered at made it easy for the three of them to spot and make their way toward the organisers, who stood some ways away from the rest of the group at the mouth of the entrance.

One of them was a tall, older girl with a brown ponytail and green eyes - not a very natural colour, for sure, and likely a cosmetic choice seeing as to how her amour, some medium plate over dark brown leather, had similarly coloured highlights. The tell-tale pommels of a pair of twin shortswords stuck out from the sides behind her waist, and while she didn't profess quite the same familiarity with this floor's weaponry as Kirito did she was fairly certain things that looked that nice weren't store-bought, nor easy to come by. If they hadn't already been stood amongst a bunch of them, that alone would have been enough for Yuuki to peg her as a 'front-liner' - as well as a potential sparring partner, since she hadn't actually fought anyone who used shortswords yet. The other player, well…

Yuuki stopped dead in her tracks. "Diavel…?"

A mop of blue hair and a set of silver chest and shoulder plates over a similarly blue tunic. The player before her looked, as far as she could tell, just like their deceased -

 _She stared, shocked, at the rapidly dissipating particles before her._

 _He'd been right there. Right in front of her, when she'd commanded the item to heal him. But it didn't._

 _He was dead._

-former, raid leader. It was only after the player looked directly her way that she saw the slight differences. The hair was wrong; messier, and missing the locks. He didn't have a shield, and at his waist was not a straight but a curved sword, a completely different weapon type as far as SAO was concerned. But most distinctively, somehow, was his stride; Diavel never walked, for the short time she'd seen the man, but always strode with purpose, taking long, crisp steps with his head held high. This player, too, strode with purpose, but whatever purpose it was it wasn't the same; his strides were long but brisk, and while his head was held high it only served to display further differences, that being his permanently half-furrowed brow and the ghost of a scowl as opposed to their previous raid leader's crease-free forehead and charming smile. It honestly looked like he was some kind of Diavel cosplayer, just without any friends at the convention and a really bad day.

"Unfortunately, no." The doppelganger grunted, having heard her as he was walking towards them in that strange way of his that looked like Diavel's - but wrong, "I don't believe we've met, but I am Lind, current leader of the clearing effort - and Diavel's successor."

The doppelganger - Lind - stopped a short distance in front of them, the girl with him following suit a step or two behind. The man spoke in a polite enough manner, but he was brusque and generally didn't _feel_ very friendly. Hearing him talk finally allowed to click what Yuuki had found so _wrong_ about the way he walked; simply put, it was too efficient. Efficient in a way that felt unnatural, like both walking and talking were wastes of his time and in seeking to minimise the wastage he went through the motions and nothing more.

Kirito coughed lightly from behind her, and Yuuki realised with a start that she hadn't responded to Lind's introduction. "Oh, uh, hi," she said lamely. "I'm Yuuki."

 _And what's with the Diavel cosplay?_ She felt like asking. She didn't, though, if only because she had a bit more tact than most who met her tended to assume. Instead, she kept silent as more introductions were done - kind of an awkward affair, if she was honest, it being all formal and stuff - before she was once more addressed, though this time not in a way she entirely expected.

"So…" Lind began, looking her up and down, "you're the 'Absolute Sword', huh?"

"Hah?" Yuuki blinked, not fully comprehending for a second. "Oh. Uh, yeah, that's me, I guess." Had that moniker really caught on? It sounded badass, for sure, but she honestly couldn't reconcile such a grand title with her image of herself. If it were Asuna or something, then sure, but her? She wouldn't say she had too negative a body image, but the fact of the matter was that constant illness didn't do her looks many favours. She thought herself cute, sort of - her onee-chan certainly kept telling her so - but 'absolute'? Didn't really work with her, was all she was saying. Someone with a title like that should be strong and unwavering, like a stone wall; not thin and looking like they could be blown over by a stuff breeze.

Lind seemed to agree, but carefully hid his disappointment behind what she could only assume was supposed to be a winning smile. "Well, then I guess I'll have to thank you," he laughed, and though it still sounded gruff it was the first sound with any notabledegree of genuinity there. "You obviously don't remember me, but Astrid and I," he nodded towards the brown-haired girl stood slightly to his side, "were there when our great leader met his unfortunate end. We were blown away by Illfang's first attack, but if you hadn't stepped in when you did I would wager that we'd have easily been next. So for that, thank you."

The man bowed, as did the girl behind him - Yuuki scrambled to tell them they didn't have to, but before a word could leave her mouth both players were already stood upright. In a way, their swiftness forced her to accept their gratitude - but inside, Yuuki couldn't help but feel a tiny bit guilty. Lind was right, after all; she _didn't_ remember either of them in the slightest, so caught up in the moment she'd been at the time. While she did probably save their lives, having monopolised Illfang's attention as she did, she hadn't actually done it with the intention to save them - and to receive thanks for something she didn't even remember, well, it didn't feel like she entirely deserved it.

…

...yet her heart soared, regardless. Undercut by the slight sense of guilt, perhaps, but, well, she'd _saved_ someone. And as much as she didn't remember it it still did count for something.

"Now with that out of the way - " Lind began, only to receive an elbow to his side. The brown-haired girl, Astrid, gave the raid leader a sidelong glance, and grumbling slightly to himself Lind continued. "Sorry, that came out wrong. Think not for a second that my thanks was given merely out of courtesy, or for propriety. My - our - gratitude is genuine, though I'd ask you to forgive me if I'm not quite so adept at showing it." He smiled to show his sincerity, but once again it was there barely long enough for Yuuki to even get flustered. When it fell, however, she couldn't help but imagine that the man spoke a bit less gruffly than before. "Be that as it may, we have a quest to do, and I have other things to attend to. Go stand in the crowd for a bit; with this many people already here, we'll be starting the briefing in 5 minutes."

* * *

The quest was simple. Or rather, the quest they _received_ was simple; the overall larger one, not so much.

«For Unity» was, as they were made aware in the message they received, a hunt quest, where a certain number of mobs were to be hunted and killed. The problem was, being a «Guild» creation quest, the number and variety of mobs were quite a great deal larger than she was used to, though Kirito said that all things considered a small party of five or six could still complete it on their own, given time. The issue there, however, was the fact that that would take days - time which the clearing groups would much rather spend mapping the labyrinth, and locating the boss room.

"As such, the arrangement is as follows; each party will be given a zone to farm in, where the target mobs are thought to commonly spawn," Lind had spoke, "you should have already received an invite to take part in the quest; after accepting it, you should be able to see our overall progress from the «Quest Objectives» menu, and upon completion of all objectives you too should receive a quest completion notification, at which point you should return here for a debrief. Should the quota for the mob you're assigned to be fulfilled prior to quest completion, don't waste time heading back here; instead, remain at your assigned zone, and await further instructions. We will be keeping track of the quest objectives from our end as well, and will notify your party leaders should the need arise. This should go without saying, but ensure that you are in contact with your party leader at all times; we don't actually have all your contact info, so your leaders are the only point of contact between us and you."

Quite ironically, one of the mobs to be hunted was the «Trembling Ox» - but luckily they were spared from a fourth hour of hunting those, instead being assigned to the inside of the labyrinth due to their high level, where they were tasked to hunt «Lesser Taurus Strikers» _._

Which were, well…

 _Unique_ , to say the least.

"Holy cow," Yuuki couldn't help but comment, before sniggering. "Or bull, in this case. What's the deal with these guys?"

"They're fairly common mobs in this labyrinth, the first iteration of many that take inspiration from the mythical Minotaur," Kirito replied lamely. "Though somehow I doubt that's the object of your interest. You okay there, Asuna?"

The girl in question had a hand on her rapier, and her eyes narrowed dangerously. "This is…" she seemed at a loss for words. "Improper, to put lightly. Rather, their appearance alone is a form of sexual harassment. I would've thought it impossible for the man to stoop even lower, but apparently nothing is impossible for Kayaba."

With the bodies of large, muscular adult males, clad in underwear, two straps forming an X across their chests, and nothing else, the «Lesser Taurus Striker» could certainly be called that. Granted, it had the legs and tail of a bull as well which did take away from the human resemblance somewhat - but still, Asuna's discomfort was justified.

In a way, Yuuki found it something of a waste that Zest wasn't around at the moment; she had a feeling that the flirty teen would have loved to offer his aid in dispatching the vulgar brigands that would dare to disturb the lovely ladies, but in his absence Yuuki felt it was her job to fill in the silence. "If they're that hard on the eyes, Asunachi, you could always sit this one out. Kirito and I could take these guys out in no time," she offered, but Asuna only shook her head.

"No...as unpleasant as they are to look at, I wouldn't let anything so superficial as looks to get in the way of completing an objective," Asuna sighed. "Rather, does this not disturb you, Yuuki?"

"Not really, no," Yuuki replied, shrugging. "The way they're dressed is kinda weird, but it sorta looks like that one really old and campy cartoon superhero. Saw a clip of that guy singing this song in a really high-pitched voice once, it was great."

"...you mean He-Man?" Kirito guessed.

"Yeah, that was the name! Thanks."

"All the same, I would imagine that the sexual connotations would be a bit more pronounced when seeing one clad in such an outfit stood right in front of you," Asuna sighed, muttering something about the innocence of youth. "We've chatted quite enough, I think. Those «Lesser Taurus Strikers» are becoming quite the eyesores, and I think it's about time we dispatched them."

"Yeah, let's do that," Yuuki laughed, drawing her sword and preparing to charge in. "I have to ask, though; what sexual connotations were you on about?"

There was this one, glorious moment where both Asuna AND Kirito's faces rapidly paled, both sharing a look of distress, before they drew their blades with hasty rasps of steel as they pointedly _didn't_ answer the question, instead focusing their attention on the offending mobs.

She was messing with them, of course; she wasn't quite so innocent to not even see the creepy aspect of their outfits, but the "fourteen year-old" card was a fun one to play, especially when her companions regularly forgot just how young she actually was.

 _Should I be offended?_ she wondered. She was young, sure, but not a child - fourteen had the word _teen_ in it after all - and for that matter she couldn't help but feel that the sexual connotations of _nakedness_ were kind of, well, obvious. How young did you have to be to not get them, five!?

 _Yeah, I should totally be offended. Just how innocent do they think I am?_

In the absence of a proper conversation partner she posed this silent query to the «Lesser Taurus Striker»she came face to face with, and though she tilted her head to the side, inviting an answer, she received naught in return but a panicked mooing as the thing stumbled back, nearly falling over from the fourteen year-old girl that impacted on its chest, legs bent and feet placed on its not inconsiderable pectorals. Bracing herself against the mob's chest, she kicked out, sending it staggering back even as she used its chest as a springboard to launch herself as well, her sword tracing an arc of black and silver as it nearly sliced the mob's face in half, the tip of her blade having been placed under its chin before she flipped off of it. She landed in the starting position for the activation of the «Dash-Cut» skill, and bent legs uncoiling she pushed herself forward in a burst of speed, «Onyx Slasher»'s brilliant purple trail the only indication of her path as she more or less teleported behind the «Lesser Taurus Striker». She'd like to have said it roared, it being a large, ferocious looking beast after all, but it was also a cow - and so all she got was a pained moo. It was rather disappointing, if she was being honest, and she voiced her displeasure.

"You know," she said conversationally as the lumbering thing began to turn to face her, "with the way you look I can only imagine that you're a gag character, but there's still a thing or two to be said about atmosphere. Namely, that you're ruining it with your cries" The «Less _-_ ugh, screw it, that name was a mouthful - the Taurus had only made it about halfway around when Yuuki's blade bit deep into its calf (like, its lower leg, not it's child) and with another pained moo it fell to one knee. "See? Exactly like that. I do something cool and I expect a roar of fury - like, _Rargh!_ \- or an angry snort, but all you guys do is moo. It just sounds, I dunno, whinier? It probably doesn't help that you guys look the way you do, either, though I guess at least that way you're at least consistent."

The cow-man didn't seem to appreciate the comment, and with an angry moo - again, points for consistency? - it swung a hammer down upon her. It was _so_ slow though - and she sidestepped, twirled, and traced her blade down the shaft of the hammer, guiding it to slam down beside her all in one swift motion, before the Taurus could even fully complete it's swing. She gave a short "hup!" as she followed through with her momentum and flipped up onto the hammer, which was just barely large enough for her feet to find purchase on; it felt like what she imagined walking on a tightrope to feel like, albeit less bendy and jaw-droppingly high off the ground. Heedless of the lack of proper footing, Yuuki shot up along the Taurus' beefy - pun intended - arm, and twirling once more she delivered a hard, spinning slash to the side of its exposed neck, not that it wasn't exposed everywhere else too, decapitating it. It soon burst into a shower of polygons, though immaterial as they were the polygons didn't do much to arrest Yuuki's fall when the thing attached to the arm holding her up died.

Yuuki's flawless victory was marred by fall damage, having been caught unaware and landing disgracefully on her bum.

 _So, I guess I peaked in that one fight against Asuna then_ , Yuuki grumbled to herself. _You'd think not getting hit would be easy after drawing First Strike with a rapier user, but nooooo. I get hit by the floor._

Then again, if she recalled she'd half-sprained her ankle during the fight too, taking damage from it though it didn't count towards the first strike.

 _...is my greatest enemy the floor after all?_

In the midst of her empty musings, Yuuki couldn't help but collapsed in a fit of giggles at her own silliness.

It was strange how carefree she felt in what was nearly continuous battle, but yet, Yuuki considered as she rolled out of the way of a hammer strike and scored a deep cut on a Taurus' ankle, carefree was exactly how she felt. Not overly thrilled, with her heart beating wildly in her chest or anything - not against mobs like these - just, well, free of cares. Relaxed, in a way, just that her mind and body had to run a mile a minute. Able to daydream, like how she used to when staring up at her ceiling and wondering what she might have gotten up to if she hadn't her condition - only instead of lounging around on her bed she was doing backflips over monsters. It was just...enjoyable. Not so much for the Taurus, who she tuned out as it mooed it's indignance at the gash she gave it on its shoulder,

Maybe it was just the adrenaline, Yuuki considered, that let her ride out what should have been fierce combat in such a passive, uninvolved manner. That was what adrenaline did, right? It flooded your system, and suddenly things were happening - and then when it faded you'd go all _wow, what just happened?_

A strangled moo broke Yuuki out of her thoughts, and to her surprise she found the Taurus she was fighting on the ground, glowing faintly before it shattered like glass.

"Wow, what just happened?"

"You know, swordplay is supposed to be all about an awareness of one's surroundings, with an undivided focus on one's enemy and his blade. As a practitioner of the art myself I feel like I should be offended by your lack of either, if you weren't somehow trouncing your opponents regardless."

Yuuki blinked, and turning towards the sound of the voice she found herself looking at Kirito, who was quite methodically working away at his own Taurus' health bar.

"Oh, hi," Yuuki greeted lamely. "How'd you get over here? I thought you were fighting your Taurus a little further in."

"I was, and I am," Kirito deadpanned. "Yuuki, I've stayed in this exact spot for the past few minutes or so. _You're_ the one who somehow fought your «Lesser Taurus Striker» all the way here."

Oh. Now that she looked around, the entrance to the dungeon did look a bit further than it had been before. "Oh," she repeated aloud. "Wow," she added for good measure.

To be fair, Aiko never did tell her she was good with words.

"How eloquent," Kirito drawled, and Yuuki flushed when she realised how stupid she sounded. "And here I thought I was the one who was incapable of communication. This is exactly what I was talking about, by the way. You seem to go off into your own world when you're fighting."

"Yeah, well, I just get really into the 'focusing on the opponent' bit," she defended, only to receive a raised eyebrow in response. "Were you always this sassy? I feel like time away from Asuna makes you meaner. It's true, though; I wouldn't be able to kill things without getting hit otherwise. Everything kind of happens in a blur by the end, but in the moment I feel like I'm focused enough."

Stepping back and allowing the Taurus' hammer to sail past before twisting in and slashing at its elbow, Kirito found time to look over to the upper left of his vision, where the party's health bars were recorded. "It says here you got hit."

"That was from fall damage," Yuuki grumbled, "and I don't see _your_ 'undivided focus'." Here she grinned triumphantly. "You're talking to me, after all. So that means your attention is split."

"Admittedly," Kirito gave, parrying and then attacking with 3-hit sword skill «Brandish», stepping in closer to deliver the two hits, "but I'm quite adept at dividing and, let's say delegating, my attention. Though I'm talking to you, at the same time I am aware that my opponent's health bar is nearing the red, and that it won't be able to attack me with its hammer at this range when it's guard is wide open." As if to illustrate his point, the Taurus he was fighting staggered back a few steps, creating distance such that it's large hammer could be of use again. Kirito took the lull in action to glance Yuuki's way, only to laugh at the pout she gave him. "Don't be like that. I'm not saying your style of fighting is wrong, or even ineffective. It's just more...reactionary, than I'm used to. No - instinctual, maybe. Either way, it just means you're talented or something, right?"

 _Or something._ Yuuki's eyes narrowed, and she pouted even harder. Kirito only laughed. This was payback for this morning, wasn't it? "Be that as it may," she began in the best impression of Asuna she could muster, "you can't call yourself a 'practitioner of the blade' just because you use a longsword. There are people who actually do swordfighting in real life, you know."

"I know," Kirito chuckled, knocking the Taurus' hammer upward and spinning as he stepped forward, slashing this time at the Taurus' torso. His coat billowed from the motion. "And I'm one of them. I did some kendo a few years back; my teacher was something of a stickler for the state of mind you were supposed to be in while practicing it, and made sure I was always in it on top of knowing all the forms, and stuff. Can't say all the lessons stuck with me, but that one at least I've been putting into practice during combat."

Before the Taurus could move again, Kirito finished the motions for the sword skill «Uppercut», and «Anneal Blade» shining bright blue he cut up and across, cleaving the Taurus from its abdomen to its shoulder. It roared in pain - hey, how come this one didn't just moo!? - and shattered. A second or two later another shattering was heard nearby, and as the last Taurus was taken care of by Asuna windows detailing their spoils of war opened themselves before each player, the fight having been registered as over.

"That was the last of them, then," Kirito sighed, flicking his sword to the side before returning it to its sheath. "I took three of them. Asuna?"

"Three as well," Asuna replied curtly as she walked towards them, flicking her hair as she did. "Though I must admit I'm a bit more drained than I expected to be. My rapier didn't lend itself well to blocking or deflecting blows from heavier weapons like that, so I was left with no choice but to dart and dodge around it. It was slow, but I think I moved too far on one of my dodges and aggroed another one before I was ready. They were still too slow to hit me, thankfully, but if nothing else the surprise of suddenly having one additional opponent tired me out a bit. I'll be fine in a while, however."

"And I have no idea how many I took," Yuuki laughed. "Erm, I got 3,150 col, though? Does that help?"

It took a second, but after glancing down at their own drop windows both Kirito and Asuna looked up to stare at her, dumbfounded. "Uh, does it not help?" She asked.

Her two teammates stared at her for a while longer, before glancing back at each other.

"1,800," Kirito said.

"1,950," Asuna replied.

"There's a range for how much col each «Lesser Taurus Striker» drops, but I think we can estimate it to be around 600 col per Taurus," Kirito sighed, running a hand over his face. "That means you took out around five of them, Yuuki. All without realising."

"Were there even that many «Lesser Taurus Strikers» in the area to begin with, though…?" Asuna questioned.

"Oh, there were. There was a small group of two some ways away. Considering how Yuuki travelled from her end of the room to mine, if she went outwards a bit she could have easily aggroed both mobs to her position. I assume this is what happened, not that Yuuki seems to be able to confirm it."

"Ah," Yuuki replied, wondering if she should feel proud or embarrassed by the genuine amazement (if mixed with a bit of exasperation in Kirito's case) her teammates seemed to be showing at her feat. The question of "How!?" went unspoken, but not unasked.

"Uh," Yuuki tried, "I was getting really into it?"

Her cluelessness seemed to break whatever spell she'd accidentally cast on her teammates, and with a colossal sigh Kirito was the first to speak up. "Our Absolute Sword, everyone," he jested. "Mere field mobs are so beneath her notice she literally can't remember if she kills them. Woe are the mobs who cross her path, only to not just fade from memory but never register on the first place."

"Oh, stop it Kirito-kun," Asuna giggled, slapping him lightly on his arm. "Yuuki's gone red."

"I have no idea what you mean," Yuuki denied, despite the fact that the game's system made blushes painfully obvious. "Nothing happened, after all. Nobody said anything. Or, if anyone did, it was beneath my notice."

Kirito's smile died. "Wait, what?"

"Hmm? Did you hear something?" Yuuki asked Asuna, looking away from the other person that wasn't there. Asuna giggled. "I thought I heard the sound of a...a thing beneath my notice." She cocked her head, and placed a hand behind her ear and pretended to listen hard. "Nope, it was just my imagination."

"Okay, I probably deserved that," Kirito admitted, scratching his cheek sheepishly. "You can have the last word on this one, Yuuki. Anyway, we've still got some farming to do, so let's go deeper into the labyrinth. The path to the left over there should have a few «Lesser Taurus Strikers»for us to take about halfway down the corridor, so we should head on there first before doubling back to this room, killing any respawns before going down the main path."

"Hey, I've got a brilliant idea!" Yuuki exclaimed, still completely ignoring her nonexistent partner. "Let's head down that corridor over to the left, Asunachi! We can go kill the Tauruses over there first, then double back afterwards. Prime efficiency right there! Go me."

"H-hey, I said it was my fault, didn't I?" Kirito appealed as she pointedly ignored him, dragging Asuna in the direction he had indicated earlier and leaving him in the dust. "I'm sorry, okay? Wait up, Yuuki - if you're not going to acknowledge my presence, at least don't pass off my ideas as your own! I planned this route, damn it!"

* * *

The quest was completed without much incident - except for Kirito suddenly disappearing from her sight for a period of time, at least until she found him doing a picture-perfect dogeza at her feet - as they were soon made aware of by a chiming sound, and a pop-up from the game system congratulating them on completing the quest. A short reminder from Lind to return to the mouth of the labyrinth for a debrief followed not two minutes after, but having been farming within the labyrinth itself said mouth of labyrinth was within sight by the time Kirito received it. It took comparatively longer for everyone else to get back, seeing as some other target mobs spawned in areas much further from their agreed meeting point, but eventually everyone was gathered, and Lind stepped forward to begin the debrief.

"That concludes the _Guild_ Creation Quest, _For Unity_ ," Lind stated, voiced raised to be heard by all within the crowd. "Simple quest as it was, I find myself impressed by the speed at which what could be a tedious undertaking was completed. Truly, our great work here is a good sign of things to come. With that said, I would like to formally announce the formation of Aincrad's first clearing guild, the «Dragon Knights Brigade», or the DKB for short." He paused as the crowd broke out in applause, some polite and others more enthusiastic about it. Lind waited it out before continuing.

"Informal as this gathering may be, this is truly a monumental occasion that will help greatly in the quest for our freedom from this accursed floating castle. As our wise, dearly departed leader once said, it is together, united against our common enemy, that we can hope to achieve our goal. And, again, this is the first step in doing just that. As such, I'd like to extend to all of you an invitation to the «Dragon Knights Brigade», which you should see as available to join in the newly unlocked «Guild» menu…"

 _He doesn't sound like him, but he's speaking an awful lot like Diavel._

It was probably intentional, too; the man did, after all, dress like their old raid leader, which spoke of something more than just mere respect for the other man. Hero worship was the first thing to come to mind, though unhealthy obsession came a close second.

She didn't think it was lost on anyone. Lind was hardly subtle, after all, always attaching several positive adjectives before any reference to the man, and, well...the cosplay was a dead giveaway, if nothing else was. No one commented on it, though. Perhaps they thought it rude to do so. Perhaps they wanted to give a grieving man some space.

Surprisingly, Valkyrie went up next, and announced that she was also starting up a «Guild», «Valhalla».

"Wait, her!?" Yuuki blurted out when the white-haired girl began speaking, "she was the quiet one, right? Why would she of all people start a «Guild»? For that matter, since when was she here? And why didn't she join up with us?"

Both her teammates stared at her, bewildered. "Yuuki," Kirito began, slowly, "we spoke to Valkyrie before we entered the Labyrinth, remember? She arrived before us, and not knowing we would show up at the time she checked in with Lind by herself, and got assigned to a different location with a different group. Did...did you forget, or just not notice?"

"She told us about wanting to set up a «Guild», too," Asuna mumbled, seemingly amused. "After knowledge from the beta proved to be inaccurate, she volunteered to scout out areas, and managed to give the clearing groups some very comprehensive information about, amongst a host of other things, the «Bulbous Bow». It got her something of a following, and someone put the idea in her head after the battle with the Field Boss. Does any of this ring a bell?"

It didn't, but she pretended it did and laughed it off as a lapse in memory. Adrenaline, and all that, but she totally had noticed at the time and if Kirito wanted to challenge that then he could do so at the risk of her cognition of him.

 _Don't make me do it again,_ she threatened with a series of expressive eyebrow movements. _It's actually pretty hard to just pretend someone isn't there, but I'll do it again if I have to._

Kirito wisely chose to heed her warning.

"The «Dragon Knights Brigade» and «Valhalla», huh?" the boy spoke when the debrief came to an end. "Not gonna lie, the first sounds more like the kind of name a chuuni would come up with than an official clearing group, but I suppose they might have their reasons. Maybe it's just an excuse to out a dragon on their emblem; if nothing else, it'd make a good flag."

"I can't say I'm too on board with the name either, but again, I'm not one to let such trifling matters affect my decisions," Asuna replied. "Then again, having worked with Valkyrie I do know that she knows her stuff, as much as I never expected her to start up a Guild. Shall we enlist in hers, then?"

"H-hold on, enlist?"

The squeaked reply to her rhetorical question surprised Asuna, and puzzled she turned around - only to find Yuuki staring back at her, eyes wide and panicked. Blindsided by the unexpected response Asuna couldn't help but let some of her bewilderment leak out, a puzzled expression forming on her face before she could stop it.

"I'm sorry, wha - " she began, before correcting herself, "I mean, pardon? Is...something the matter with that, Yuuki? I was of the impression that our participation in the quest was a precursor to our enlistment… as, I'm sure it is for most of the players here."

Sure enough, almost all the players present were enlisting, the words "Joined «Dragon Knights Brigade»" and "Joined «Valhalla»" popping up above their heads momentarily to signify the action. Yuuki could only shuffle uncomfortably.

"Erm, I guess I kinda assumed we were just coming here to help out," she laughed nervously. "I, uh...never really intended to enlist. I guess I wasn't expecting it, so you just sort of declaring it caught me off-guard."

Fair, but that wasn't all there was to it."You…" Asuna began, only to trail off as she considered what it could be. It only sounded like one thing, really, but she hadn't pegged Yuuki as the type. "You're not keen on joining, are you?"

Reluctance. It was plain to hear in Yuuki's tone, but with how outgoing the girl was - she was the type to just walk up to and challenge random strangers to duels, after all - Asuna would admit to some surprise at Yuuki not wanting to join a guild. "I suppose you could say that, yeah," Yuuki admitted, beforea cautious uncertainty began to set in her voice. "Is...is that a problem? I mean, _I_ don't intend to join, but you guys still - "

"No, no, it's not a problem," Asuna was quick to reassure, though she took her eyes off of Yuuki for a second to look to Kirito for confirmation. He raised his eyebrows as if to say "did you need to even ask?"and she shot him a quick smile as she continued. "If I'm honest, I was really only going to join because I thought we were expected to, as part of the clearing effort. Do you not intend to continue clearing, Yuuki?"

It'd be something of a pity, she felt, but she could understand it. Despite how she acted about it, Yuuki _was_ still fourteen; the task of clearing Aincrad's hundred floors was a great deal heavier than any burden a teenager should have to bear, and though she didn't show it she could understand if Yuuki was reluctant to continue carrying it.

"Oh, yeah, of course," Yuuki replied, contrary to Asuna's expectations. "Clearing's fine. It's just, well...joining a clearing guild makes it sound like a full-time job, right? Like I said, clearing is fine, but I don't wanna be married to the job or anything. I'm just, hah, not ready for that kind of commitment."

She chuckled at her choice of words, but there was no hiding the relief in her voice there. "Wow, that's a load off my mind, actually. Whew." She laughed, and tension she hadn't even realised was there left her shoulders. For a moment, she'd feared...no, never mind what she'd feared. They hadn't come true, so there was no need to dwell on them any longer.

With that, they were done there; no longer with the need to register for the guild, the trio no longer had any further need to remain outside the labyrinth, and thus turned to leave.

They didn't make it far, however.

"Leaving so soon?" Lind asked, meeting them at the mouth of the clearing where he was stood doing something with his menu. Probably something Guild-related. "You know, I had hoped you'd join the DKB, but seeing as I don't see your names here I assume you lot joined Valkyrie's guild. Can't say I didn't expect it, what with you having fought together and all, but I'll admit to feeling a tad bit disappointed. To each their own, however, and I look forward to fighting alongside you nonetheless."

He smiled, and though one hand still seemed to be typing on an invisible keyboard he stuck his other out, which Yuuki took. "Same to you," she replied. "But, ah, you made a mistake there. We didn't join Valkyrie's guild."

"Truly?" Lind asked, surprised, eyes leaving the spot in the air that seemed to house his menu. "I'm looking at the member list right now, and I don't seem to recall having seen yours. Perhaps I missed them - but if that's the case, then welcome to the DKB."

"Oh, no, we haven't joined your guild either," Yuuki laughed. "We won't be joining any clearing guilds, actually. It's just, not for us, y'know? Or rather, not for me," she admitted. "This was more my idea than theirs, but Kirito and Asunachi decided to go with me on this. We'll still be participating in raids, of course, but, uh, yeah - please take good care of...us…?"

The last bit trailed off, and became something of a question - for by this time Lind had grown dangerously still. "Pardon?" Lind asked eventually, voice dangerously low. "My apologies, but could you repeat that? I don't believe I heard you right."

Cold. His voice was so cold that it sent shivers down her spine, and for a moment it froze her to the spot, too. Eventually she thawed, and found herself able to speak again. "O-our group doesn't intend to join any guilds at the moment," she repeated, lips quivering slightly, "b-but we'll still be contributing to the clearing effort. Just...not full-time."

For what felt like a minute or so, there was no reply. An undeniable tension filled the air, however, as Lind seemed to process what he'd been told. The typing had long since stopped, and with his menu presumably closed his eyes now passed over Yuuki's face, before flicking to Kirito's and Asuna's. Whatever he saw there didn't seem to please him, for his face grew sour.

"Might I ask you to reconsider?" he asked, as polite as he could manage while his eyes seemed to glint like daggers. "I'm glad you'll still be helping us during the raids, but surely if you're already doing that joining a guild wouldn't be too much to ask? It doesn't have to be mine, mind you. «Valhalla» works just fine, so long as you lot join a clearing guild."

He was angry. She didn't know _why_ , but that much was clear, for his fury was plain to hear in both his tone and see in his actions, for all that it boiled under the surface. He kept a lid on it, sure - but all that did was promise all the more spectacular an explosion when the lid finally came loose.

 _Why is_ _ **he**_ _taking issue with this? I'd get it if he was disappointed, but this is taking it to a whole nother level!_

He wasn't going to be a creepy stalker or something, right? Like, " _oh, you saved my life, and so our fates are intertwined!",_ that kind of thing?

If only his fury came from something stupid like that. Then, she could easily bring herself to ignore it...

"S-sorry, but no. Thanks," she added as an afterthought, frantically working her hand out of the vice grip and managing to pull it free. She laughed, trying to play it cool as she took a few steps back. "I just don't really feel like joining a Guild at the moment, especially not a clearing one. It's nothing I have against you, or Valkyrie for that matter, but I just...don't want to be a full-time clearer, you know? I have other things I wanna do too. That's fine, right?"

"It most certainly is _not!_ " Lind _snarled_ , causing Yuuki to stumble back in surprise. "If it were anyone else, I would have let them go with a sigh, but a smile. Their lives are their own, after all, and if they think they'd rather spend their time _playing_ than working towards _freeing us all_ , then who am I to judge? But _you_ ," he emphasized, closing the distance with two large strides. "You are not anyone else. You are the _Absolute Sword_. You are the clearing group's best player, and after the stunt you pulled with Illfang you're also a symbol. I'm sorry, Yuuki, I really am, but as things are you have a responsibility, a _duty_ to join the guilds. The strong protect the weak, which allows the weak to become the strong; this is the concept modern day society is founded on, overturning the law of the jungle go allow humankind to prosper as the dominant species on our planet. Such is also the foundation of the clearing groups; us, who are able to push through the fear of death to train ourselves and fight the monsters that stand between us and freedom - the 'strong' - fight for those who lack such courage - the 'weak'. And you, Yuuki, are the strongest of us all, which thus burdens you with the strongest responsibility. To be unwilling to fulfill this responsibility is selfishness, plain and simple; not unconscionable, mind you, but there is a _limit_ to how much we can afford to let go!"

"Wha-"

"Who do you think you are?" Lind questioned, cutting her off. "A girl? A student? Just any old player in a video game? I don't know what roles you think you still have, but whatever they are they come second to this: you, Yuuki, are a symbol. The first floor boss raid was almost a wreck - but believe it or not, it was you who pulled off a miracle, who pulled everybody back together in a time of crisis. Who fought so fiercely and beautifully, that all anyone could do was watch, or contribute elsewhere; so deadly was your dance that none could go near for fear of getting in your way. I don't know if you're humble or delusional, but for whatever reason you seem to fail to understand this; what you pulled off that day, was nothing short of a miracle. And, miracle worker that you are, when the shock faded people were bound to look up to you, in awe and admiration. Which is just what we need."

"In the first, most dangerous boss raid, we lost ourselves a rallying point. A shining beacon of hope." Lind paused here in his rant, taking deep breaths as something that wasn't anger flickered through his eyes. "But fortunately, before we could bemoan the loss we found another one. Again, you must understand, Yuuki, that the clearing groups are not in a good place; we are nearing two months into the game, and we are barely cresting on the second out of a hundred floor bosses. And these first few floors are the easy ones; in the beta, floors ten and onward took far longer to complete than any of the floors before, and for the two floors above twenty things only seemed to get harder, and take longer. If we conservatively, and at the pace at which we're going _I mean conservatively,_ estimate each floor to take us a month like this first stretch has taken, then multiplying by a hundred and adding some more time for difficulty we are looking at over a hundred months, or a _whole decade_ , to clear the game. Ten years of our lives gone, just like that." He made what she imagined to be a 'poof' motion with his hands to illustrate the effect, and chuckled bitterly before going on. "Those are calculations for a worst case scenario, however. During the beta, when players played the game without the threat of death looming over their heads, you know how long they took to get to where we are now? One _week_ ," he emphasised, "and the first few days were mostly spent admiring the graphics and learning the controls, or so I've been told. The beta had less players, too, but they made up for it in - I'd like to say motivation, but simply being excited to be the first to play a VRMMO it's probably more accurate to say hype. You see how great of a role perception plays in all this?" He asked, and for the first time he paused, actually asking the question. Yuuki only nodded. "Good, you catch on quick. Then again, if Diavel could explain it to a chump like me, I suppose it's simple enough for anyone to understand when put in the words he used. In any case, perception is important; it gives us the will, the motivation and the courage to overcome all that this world throws at us, such that we may finally overcome it all and go home. Diavel sought to be the one to use this concept of perception, and with his intelligence and charisma he proved his theory with the successful gathering and execution of the first floor boss raid. Not that he lived to see it through," the man paused to swallow, "but right when the future was uncertain with the death of our great leader, _you_ showed up. You, Yuuki, proved to everyone through your actions what Diavel had tried to convey through his words: that this is a game, and that it can be beaten. Things only got better when it came out that you weren't even a beta tester; just a few members of the raid party that day speaking up about it, and now suddenly everyone is believing they have the power to inflict change, to kill floor bosses and free themselves from this Death Game. You don't seem to have noticed, but you hold tremendous power. Power and potential, which you wish to squander simply because you _just don't feel like_ joining a guild!"

To punctuate his sentence, Lind's finger stabbed into her sternum - and while the action was by no means light, Yuuki doubted the man had expected her to fall on her ass, her knees buckling and allowing the comparatively light push knock her down like a feather. It was enough to stun the man, whose anger cleared momentarily to give way to shock.

It was enough to spur Asuna into action.

"I believe my teammate has made her wishes _clear_ ," Asuna hissed, stepping in between the two of them with a hand on her rapier. "You have made many valid points, and I can certainly see why Yuuki might be sought-after, but she desires to remain free from the clearing guilds and she _shall_. She is her own person, and you have no right to force her into doing something she doesn't want to."

"Are you okay, Yuuki?" Kirito asked, his voice soothing beside her ear, likely in an attempt to draw her attention away from the aggressive verbal lashing Asuna was giving Lind. She didn't know when he had knelt down beside her, but he had, and gently but firmly he gripped her arm, and helped her up. She didn't so much accept the help as allow herself to be pulled up, but she had the presence of mind to nod her head, and answer his question. "I - I'm fine," she gasped, strength returning to her legs. "He didn't hurt me, or anything. I just...I fell on my own."

And she had, for all that it felt as if Lind had shot her legs out from under her. Yuuki had never been a particularly sensitive child, or at least that's what she thought of herself, but she had to admit that the sudden display of anger had been more than a bit shocking. It wasn't that that had knocked her off her feet, however, though it did contribute. Rather… she'd seen all the little differences, of course, but the similarities in their appearances were just too uncanny. When he began to talk sense, it got even worse. So in that moment, when he'd stalked towards her with that accusatory tone?

 _He'd just looked far too much like Diavel._

"This is not about what rights I do and do not have." Lind growled in response to Asuna's words. "This is about a responsibility she has, and is running away from! All I am doing is making it abundantly clear, to you lot who don't seem to-!"

"Lind!" someone cried, and with a new voice suddenly cutting in Lind paused in his tirade, and turned towards the source of the voice. "Fuck, you couldn't have picked a better time and place?" Astrid swore, jerking her head towards the clearing. "Just let them go. It's not ideal, but if they'll still raid with us we can make do. It's not worth _this_."

Lind turned, and though she wouldn't say he paled he might as well have, since his rage fading had the red fading from his face as well, achieving much the same effect. In his agitation, the blue-haired man had gotten loud; loud enough to attract some attention from the lingering crowd back in the clearing. There were a great deal who simply looked curious, but many of the closer ones had what Yuuki imagined to be slightly more dangerous expressions, at least to Lind and his position. Some looked worried, others uncomfortable. More still were disapproving, with a few even looking mildly disgusted to see an adult - albeit not 'fully-grown' - man shouting down a teenage girl. Not many of them seemed to have heard enough context, but regardless of that it wasn't a very good look for Lind - the new leader of the DKB.

"...I still do not agree with your decision," he finally sighed, shoulders slumping as the last of his anger was expelled out from him with it, "but I guess if you're that opposed, at this point recruiting you would do more harm than good. A symbol needs to be willing, after all, or good at pretending to be it, neither of which you seem either capable of or likely to do. As such, as of now I suppose it is in all of our best interests that I let you do as you please." Before any of them could reply, he turned, and walked away. "Apologies, Astrid, but come. We have some...damage control on our hands, now." Astrid, for her part, rolled her eyes, but followed - not before bowing to them and whispering a quick sorry, but all that was done in a second or two and before any of them could respond she'd already turned and jogged up to catch up with Lind.

 _But wait,_ Yuuki wanted to say. She couldn't, though. _You were right. I should have joined._

At this point, it was too late, though. She...wasn't sure how to feel about that. On one hand, now she could go with her original plan, without second guessing it at every turn - the bridge was burned, after all, in more ways than one. On the other…

 _It...it really was the least I could do. This world...I owe them at least that much…_

A hand settled on her shoulder, and a thumb settled on the back side of it. It rotated once, twice, easing the tension out of it, even as the remaining four finger gently curled inwards, and the hand they were connected to softly pressed down, stopping the shaking of her shoulder that she hadn't realised had been going on.

"Come on," Kirito whispered, his voice soft but firm in her ear. "Let's get going. We caused a commotion, so it'd be best if we left before anyone gets the idea to come ask us what it was about."

He helped her up, though she didn't so much accept his help as just sort of consent to it by default. He hailed her back up to her feet, and it was only after her legs were fully straightened when Kirito could let her stand on her own - any sooner and her knees might have buckled.

"Y-yeah," Yuuki answered. "Let's...let's just go."

And so they went.

* * *

Fuck Lind.

Her parents might have had something to say about her language, but at the moment Asuna couldn't bring herself to care less if she tried. Her brother had often told her she was repressed, considering how differently she acted around him and around their parents, but honestly Kouichirou hadn't seen the half of it. Then again, neither had Kirito-kun or Yuuki, so really the only one who knew about this side of herself was, well, herself.

Seriously, though, fuck that guy.

Forcing some semblance of clam into her mind, Asuna took a deep breath, and managed to form some cohesive thoughts - ones that weren't absolutely littered with swear words. Logically, the man was right, of course - and didn't _that_ thought make her feel better? - but, she thought as she fought to calm herself once more, he really had gone too far. His words were, to his credit, mostly not offensive, but words were one thing, and tone and delivery were separate ones entirely. The man had been angry, and while some of it was righteous she had a feeling that more than a bit of it was personal. As well as he had apparently conducted himself prior to their little squabble, Lind wasn't fooling anyone - no sane man dressed up like their dead friend when taking their position, following in their footsteps or not. In a way, Asuna supposed that justified his actions somewhat, and all of a sudden she did feel bad; the man was obviously grieving, after all, and not in a very healthy way.

 _And I guess the fact that it was Yuuki he was arguing with didn't make things any better_ , she considered. _She did save him, after all, so her unwillingness to put clearing before all else probably disappointed him as much as it rubbed him the wrong way. And, come to think of it, Yuuki did fail to save Diavel - through no fault of her own, of course, but grief can lead us to believe stupid things. He may very well blame her for his death._

That was neither here nor there, however; as much as Lind looked like he needed help, Asuna had her own, possibly in need of help, teammate to look after. She felt a little guilty just dismissing the guy like that, but at least that Astrid girl had a head on her shoulders.

"Yuuki," she began, only to come up with a blank as to what to say. "Are you alright?" she eventually decided on, wincing slightly at how stupid it sounded when her friend was, quite obviously, _not_ okay. She was being quiet, for one; Yuuki rarely ever was, and while Kirito's massages had stopped her trembles the silence was more than enough a sign that Yuuki hadn't quite recovered, if the fact that the incident happened not an hour ago hadn't already made it abundantly clear. Ugh, great, now the phrase 'abundantly clear' was ruined for her. It was what Lind had said before Astrid cut him off, and now she couldn't think it without hearing the angry, arrogant manner in which he said it.

"Hmm? Oh, uh, I'm fine, thanks," Yuuki answered, flashing her a smile. Asuna frowned. Did she think that was fooling anyone? Her light, casual tone could have fooled her, to be honest, but no one recovered that quick. Then again, maybe this was just her way of saying that she didn't want to talk about it at the moment. Did she have to put quite so convincing a front about it, though? If she'd just let her voice waver, let her smile be a bit more brittle, the words alone would have gotten the message across just fine. Putting on a front like that...it almost felt like she was actually trying to hide her pain, foolish and fruitless an endeavour as it was.

But Asuna could give her the space she needed, for now. Now that concern was expressed, the silent offer of support should she need it was made; she need only wait until Yuuki turned to her when she was ready. Or maybe she didn't need it at all; shocking as the incident was, Yuuki seemed the type who would bounce back from it. She'd adjusted so well and so quickly to the Death Game, after all, and while she'd seemed well-adjusted by the time they'd met she'd imagine launch day was quite a harrowing experience for Yuuki as well. On that day, there was not one in Aincrad who felt anything but fear and dread in their hearts, after all, yet in a month Yuuki was acting as if she was on vacation, rather than trapped in a Death Game.

"We're almost out of the forest," Kirito spoke, though his eyes weren't on a map of a path, but on Yuuki - not unless had had his map projected onto Yuuki's back, at any rate. "I guess after this, it's about time for a bit of R & R, like you girls wanted. After exiting the forest we'll be about 5 minutes away from Cretus, and there we can buy a few teleport crystals with our newfound col, and teleport back to Urbus. From there, well, it's up to you two really. We could spend time in the inn, or split up and wander the city till it gets dark out. Or maybe we could pay a visit to the orphanage, if you're up for it? We can use the inter-floor teleport gate from Urbus, after all, and it goes straight to the Town of Beginnings so it really is quite close. But again, it's up to you, really."

It was...sweet, really, to see the way he treated her. He was treading lightly, obviously, but he wasn't treating her like glass; if anything, Asuna's first instinct was to call it the way a brother would treat his younger sister. And he was doing a good job at it, too; far better than Kouichirou had with her, anyway, but Asuna felt her brother had something of an excuse, being burdened with the family business and not getting to spend a lot of time with her as a result. Now that she thought about it, he must have been devastated to find out she'd been trapped here because of his Nervegear, right? Well, then she'd best pay him back for all the worry she caused by waking back up, safe and sound.

So distracted she was by this line of thought that she almost bumped into Yuuki when she suddenly stopped in front of her. "What is it, Yuuki?" She asked, only to be shushed, before the girl in front of her bent forwards, bringing a hand to her ear and listening intently.

Asuna got the message, and immediately began listening too - only to hear crunching grass and rustling bushes as Yuuki suddenly dashed off the path, towards the forest on the right. "Yuuki!?" She cried, alarmed, before concentrating and listening hard once more.

There. She didn't know if the system boosted their senses in addition to their physical capabilities - a possibility given that the Nervegear worked with the brain - but when she concentrated she could hear it, the faint but unmistakable sounds of clashing steel, punctuated now and then by shouts and the odd moo. It came from their right, so it was probably where Yuuki had run off to - though how she'd noticed without explicitly trying was beyond her. Why'd she just run off without them, anyway? Looking and nodding to Kirito, Asuna gave chase, the slightly slower player hot on her heels, though he soon caught up, running only a pace or two behind her and to her side. "Any idea what we're heading into?" She asked, the beta tester a usual source of answers. He didn't often disappoint, and he didn't this time either.

"I'm not sure," he gave his usual disclaimer before he answered, "but if I remember correctly the only bovine-type mob in this part of the forest would be the _Taurus Scout_. From the clashes of metal I would assume the mobs are engaged in combat with players, but that's all I've got. The Scouts are equipped with heavy axes, so be careful about those," he said, nodding down to her waist, where her rapier was sheathed. Looks like we're coming up on them now. Making contact in three, two, one-"

Moving at the speed she was, Asuna was tempted to stab a Taurus as she ran up to it, which would promise to do massive damage and almost guarantee an instant kill. She didn't, however, if only because she hadn't the time to get a good look at all the parties involved, and analyse the situation quick enough to judge if her interference was needed - or even welcome - or not.

Dashing past a Taurus and biting down the urge to bring out her rapier as she did, Asuna leapt off the ground, and planted her feet against a tree behind it. Bending her knees as she hit the thick bark, she took the time in which the action absorbed the impact to glance up, and take a quick look around. Aside from Kirito and herself, there were six more individuals arrayed around the area, one of whom was Yuuki, who was currently engaged with a Taurus, insofar as the Taurus could actually keep up with her to be considered 'engaged'. The other five - she didn't have time to pick our any details, but she saw four boys, three of whom were stood around fighting off Tauruses, and one who was stopped low, helping up a girl clutching a spear. She couldn't see their health bars nor register their facial expressions, but all generally gave off the impression that they were worse for wear.

So they needed help, then - she didn't know how Yuuki knew this when she ran off on her own, but now that they were all here she wouldn't complain. That was still rather risky, though - Yuuki running off on her own, she meant. Oh, she'd probably meant for then to tail her, but just dashing off through the trees like that, without so much as a word of explanation...Asuna could only hope that wasn't going to become a habit. For now, she'd chalk it up to her frazzled mental state, or perhaps a lack of time. Either way, whatever it was she'd be sure to get an explanation by the end of this. Asuna wasn't one to take well to being left in the dark, but then again this wouldn't take long.

With a flash of her rapier and a cry of might, Asuna sprung off the tree, and into the fray.

* * *

 **With school being over, I'd like to say that I now have the means to update sooner, but then I'd be lying. The entire segment with Lind at the end took me three days to write, though this was inclusive of time taken to write and do away with drafts.**

 **Full transparency, though, we're coming up on one particular story arc, and even more specifically a scene that I'm really, really looking forward to writing. It's actually one of the first scenes I thought of when planning the story, and what inspired me to actually write it. That scene is still at least 3 chapters away, though, but I'm hoping that doesn't take me an entire year or something - but I also hoped we'd get to that scene by Christmas this year when I first planned it, and, well, we can see how THAT'S going.**

 **In a way, I'm really regretting not making full use of that month I skipped in the story, since after spending some time on the wiki I realised that there was this absolutely perfect scene for what I was intending to do. Namely, Kirito first encountering Asuna not during the Illfang boss meet, but in a dungeon - where the then mentally messed up Asuna farmed EXP and stuff to the brink of exhaustion. As an anime-only until recently where I picked up reading Alicization, I'd always thought they'd first met at the amphitheater-looking place. Argh, talked about wasted potential; it would've helped establish Asuna's problem better, and would have helped chapter 4 avoid the pitfall of introducing and solving the issue all in one chapter. Well, we learn from our mistakes, I suppose, so I'm going for a slow burn on this one. Or at least slow for as long as I can actually churn out material for. Though I'm sure the length of a story arc doesn't directly impact is quality, the fact of the matter is that the longer you spend with a character, the more invested you get - and a writer needs investment before they can pull off certain story beats. That investment is what I'm hoping to build up now, though its really hard doing that while avoiding writing what amounts to filler.**

 **Well, uh, that's all for now. For the record, I WILL try to write a bit faster, but I've long since realised I just can't rush myself on this. All that gives me is more discarded drafts but, eh, we'll see how it goes. The next few chapters are supposed to be lighthearted, anyway.**

 **Leave a review~**


	8. The Moonlit Black Cats

**Whaaaaaaat? This can't be! Ace, uploading a mere - how long has it been - half a month after the last update? Impossible!**

 **Well, yes, it seems that with no school and a bit more motivation than usual, my update time isn't actually all that long, though as always I did procrastinate a bit, lol. I can't help it, though; writing is** _ **hard**_ **. Sometimes I write and things just don't flow, and sometimes I write and they do - until I hit a roadblock and they don't, and I realise I'm gonna have to rewrite in order to end the chapter on a proper note. That latter scenario happened to me this chapter, and if it wasn't for that I could have posted last week. I think I'm glad I rewrote, though. The chapter wouldn't have felt quite the same, otherwise.**

 **On another note, full disclosure here: I have never, nor do I think I will ever, be big on MMOs, and really my gaming experience in general is super limited, in large part due to a lack in gaming consoles, willingness to spend money, and time (perceived, anyway). As a result, my understanding of how combat works in games is rudimentary at best. I watch plenty of gaming content, I think, but even still I'm more of a Pokémon than Dark Souls kind of guy. Take whatever Kirito says about how games and gaming works with a truckload of salt, and the knowledge that I played Infinity Blade and Mario. Ugh, with the techno-babble I could at least use the 'future tech!" excuse, but with this I'm really gonna have to ask y'all to be patient with me, lol. This isn't really that kind of story so I don't think it'll be** _ **too**_ **much of a problem, but for this chapter and possibly more in the future, I'm going to be writing about games and MMOs as if I'm an expert (thanks for that, Kirito, you gaming nerd you), when in reality I really don't know much. Research? What's that, can you eat it?**

 **With that said, on to the chapter!** I

* * *

In a raucous tavern in the southern frontier town of Cretus, eight mugs were clinked together. Not an altogether unexpected sight, because, y'know, tavern, but the fact that it was only midday spoiled the normalcy of it, a little.

"Cheers! To our saviours!"

""""Cheers!""""

"I really think you guys are overdoing it a little," Yuuki protested, scratching her cheek bashfully. "I know we helped you all out, and stuff，but... _this_ ," she gestured to the absolute _spread_ of dishes arrayed about the table, "seems a bit much, don'tcha think?"

"Naw, what're you talking about?" one of the mug-clinkers, a blonde boy with blue eyes and a beanie, laughed. "You saved us, y'know? All this's nothing compared to what you did for us. Here, have some more pie."

It wasn't luxury strawberry chiffon with more cream than realistically possible, but pie was pie, and therefore good. Yuuki accepted the offered slice gratefully, and only continued speaking after taking a bite of it. "Well, yeah, sure," she said between chews, "but I can't help but feel like you guys weren't in as bad of a spot as I'd assumed. By the end there I was afraid I'd, I dunno, overreacted and stolen your kills or something…"

"Nonsense," another of the mug-clinkers - _it's a placeholder name, I swear!_ \- answered good-naturedly, setting his mug down and running a hand through his short, brown hair. "We were in trouble, no doubt about that. Admittedly, we could have probably taken them down in time, but when Sachi fell and Tetsuo was distracted...well, let's say your help couldn't have come at a better time."

Yuuki shrugged but accepted it, and with that acceptance all shame faded and she was left grinning like a loon. It'd been a stroke of luck to hear the sounds of combat and, more importantly, their cries, when she did; the sounds had been nothing if not muffled, and she'd had a feeling that she'd never have heard it if she hadn't been in something of a peculiar mood at the time. That was then, though, and this was now - again, it'd been a stroke of luck to hear them, more so for them than her, but all the same she couldn't help but find it quite fortunate for things to have turned out the way they did.

For one, there was the feast. And it _was_ a feast; though none of the various foods proudly on display were quite as luxurious as the cake, the variety and sheer amount of food were more than enough to make up for it. The group they'd rescued had obviously spared no expense thanking their saviours, and in a way that made Yuuki feel bad for just pigging out like she was. The whole point of the feast was to _thank_ her, though, so she reasoned that enjoying herself was probably the best way to pay back whatever she felt they were overcompensating her for.

She loudly showed her appreciation by scarfing down her pie.

"Slow down, Yuuki. You'll choke," Asuna reproached, sliding a glass of water over to her. Yuuki tried to tell her it was fine, but couldn't get the words past the pie stuck in her throat.

"You know, I sometimes wonder if you _choose_ to mess up at such opportune moments," Kirito commented dryly as she downed the glass, "I wouldn't put it past you to do it on purpose just because you think it's funny."

Yuuki gave him a death glare at that, and tried in vain to have him choke on his own pie through force of will, if only for the irony. Any latent psychic powers she may have possessed chose to remain dormant for now, though, but she'd get him one day.

"I'm not sure how I'd go about choking myself on purpose, but I'll choke _you_ if you embarrass me in front of our new friends," she growled instead. Her growl wasn't meant to intimidate, though; Aiko-nee had always told her she fumed like an angry puppy, but she'd learned that lean into it enough, and it'd achieve the same desired effect.

Kirito caught her expression just as he finished delivering a piece of steak onto his mouth, and promptly choked. Hey, maybe her psychic powers weren't as latent as she thought.

"Hah, you guys are a riot!" beanie blondie chuckled, slapping a hand on the table and ignoring the «Immortal Object» popup that appeared. "I totally get it, though. Sometimes you're in a situation where messing up would be funny, and you can't help but think 'if I did this, wouldn't we all get a laugh out of it?'. So long as it's nothing serious, a bit of embarrassment is a small price to pay for a fun memory, if you ask me. Your friends might not appreciate it now, but they will when you're laughing about it around a table later."

"Again, I'm not sure how I'd choke myself on purpose…" Yuuki reiterated, "but did we just become best friends?" Beanie blondie grinned, and slapped a hand against hers. "You bet!"

"And suddenly, things are starting to make a lot more sense," the brown-haired guy groused. "You have a lot of explaining to do, Ducker, though it can wait for later. It wouldn't be fair to air our laundry in front of our saviours, but after this you and me are going to have a talk."

"It's not fun if I tell you which were on purpose, though!" Beanie - er, Ducker - protested, only for it to fall on deaf ears. "Ducker's apparently staged antics aside - god I feel scammed - I really would like to thank you all once again. Even if Sachi and Tetsuo hadn'tbeen in immediate danger, we'd have appreciated the help regardless. Not sure how they did it, but those cow mobs kind of sprung on us. Things would have gotten bad eventually, especially when more showed up; but I have to say, the way you guys dispatched them was incredible! Such speed, and precision!" he laughed, running a hand through his hair again. "Damn if I didn't feel a bit inadequate after seeing that. Us five were struggling with just two, but the three of you took care of them and all the rest that showed up in just a few minutes. It was like those things were made of paper."

Well, they kind of were, Yuuki wanted to say. «Taurus Scouts» were, after all, fairly weak mobs, even for players first arriving at the Creton Forest; Kirito had said that they were just kind of there to give players a taste of the enemy type that would be common in the labyrinth. It felt rude, though, so she kept silent - though she couldn't help but wonder why this group had had so much trouble with them.

"Speaking of which," Kirito sighed, bringing the table's attention towards him. Yuuki almost felt proud at how barely noticeable her partner's flinch was. "I can't help but notice, if you don't mind my saying it, how under-prepared you guys seem to be for the Creton Forest. No offense, but the gear you have seems in need of some upgrades before you can safely challenge some content on the 2nd floor."

There was that, too. Yuuki hadn't taken much notice of their equipment, but now that Kirito pointed it out it did look a bit like some starter equipment found on the 1st floor. It wasn't the default set, of course - adventuring here in that would have been suicide, but all in all they _did_ look fairly underequipped.

"Haha, yeah," the brown-haired one - she thought her name was Keito? - chuckled. "We _are_ a bit underleveled for the area, actually. We did a bit of farming for col to spend, but we only really started training ourselves a week or two ago, when the 2nd floor first opened up. Our being in the Creton Forest wasn't planned, actually; though we stay at an inn at Urbus for the view, we usually operate on the 1st floor. We were really only here because we read a broadcast from the clearing group's leader."

"Yeah, that Lind guy," another guy piped up, and before Yuuki's mood could sour she took one look at his hat, thought it kind of looked like a pie, and began indulging herself in a slice. "We're not on the level of the clearers yet, obviously, but we saw that the quest they were doing unlocked the «Guild» function and decided we wanted in. It wasn't clear if the completion of the quest would unlock the function for everyone or only participants, so we decided to err on the side of caution. If nothing else, fighting stronger mobs would give us better rewards than usual at least, and the security of having so many other players around and on call made the deal too difficult to pass up. We only ended up in that part of the forest on our way back to Urbus from the briefing, since the main path is something of a detour to get there."

"He says that, but really why Sasamaru brought the idea up was because he thought he saw a cute girl go that way, and he wanted to take the chance and see if we could run into her," Ducker interjected, and pie-hat guy - Sasamaru - turned on him, not quite flushing but avoiding eye contact furiously while trying to dunk his friend's head in his soup.

"Ignore them," Keito laughed. "It's what Sachi and I do. Tetsuo's the only one who gives them the time of day, and he often regrets it. There was this one time after our move here to the 2nd floor where they somehow got into an argument over who could eat more, and Tetsuo failed to bail when he could. He ended up having to carry them both back to their rooms when the game up and gave them the «Overstuffed» status effect, which exists apparently. Don't be like Tetsuo," he emphasised, to which a tall guy in a purple tunic (presumably Tetsuo) gave what Yuuki imagined to be the most polite middle finger she'd ever seen. The gesture was just so docile, and he was just so smiley that the action just didn't feel as rude as it was supposed to be.

 _Damn, I should learn that…_

"Be that as it may, I'd like to point out that decision was reckless, reasons notwithstanding," Kirito said, replying to Keito but addressing it to all of the five they saved. "I won't fault your decision in coming up here to the 2nd floor, but heading straying off the main path at least wasn't the best idea. Next time, follow the yellow brick road."

Keito and the others nodded solemnly at that, though for some reason the girl in their party - Sachi, who was memorable by virtue of being, well, _the girl of the party_ \- giggled. She'd been silent - the shy kind of silence, not like Valkyrie's where she just had nothing to say - but somehow this joke, if that was what it was, gave her the courage to speak up. "I did tell you, Keita," she murmured, and Keito - sorry, Keita - could only scratch his head at that. "I know Sasamaru suggested it, but your responsibility as our leader comes before your duties as his wingman."

"You too, Sachi?" Sasamaru cried, and the betrayal provided just enough of a distraction for Ducker to get his head out from his friend's grip, and scoot his entire seat as far left as he could, without invading Asuna's personal space. The chair legs dragging on the floor, added to his cackling at his friend's expense only drew attention to him, though, and Sasamaru was quick to turn to him and resume his torment.

Yuuki couldn't help but laugh. It was only the middle of the day, but this felt like a party that had stretched far into the night. Or at least, she assumed so; she never really went to parties after the one on her sixth birthday, but from anime at least it felt like this kind of conversation was reserved for when friends were laughing and chatting way into the night. Either way, this felt...nice. Really nice. Kirito and Asuna were great, of course, but it did get a bit tiring being the life of their little group 24/7. Zest helped with that whenever he was around, but the guy had bumped into them farming only once in the two weeks that followed the 1st floor's boss raid. He seemed inordinately busy for whatever reason, but she supposed after a humiliating defeat like that (at her hands, prior to the first floor boss battle) she could understand if he thought he needed to train more. Ah, the curse of being so talented.

"Why did you guys want to unlock the «Guild» function, though?" Asuna questioned, sipping from her own mug like a quiet bastion of calm in a rowdy storm. "I get that it's safer to farm higher-level mobs when there's backup to be called upon, but from what I understand you seemed to have made the decision to come up here based on the unlocking of «Guild» functionality...for that matter, I don't believe it was explicitly stated in the summons, but the quest info certainly suggested that «Guild» functionality would be unlocked for all players upon the completion of the quest, much like how all can access the 2nd floor upon the 1st floor's completion, but I digress."

Yuuki nodded along, though whether it was to Asuna's words are to the taste of the stew she was having, even she wasn't sure. "Oh, well," Keita replied, "me and the crew, we intend to create a Guild, actually. Don't actually have any concrete plans on what we'll do with it or, hell, even a name, but us five," he gestured to he and his group, "actually know each other IRL. We were part of the computer club at school, and logged on together. And, well, as they say, in for a penny, in for a pound, right?" He laughed. "Yeah, so we thought we'd create a Guild, just the five of us, and stick together. Although, we certainly wouldn't say no if you guys were to join us. How does that sound?"

"Uh," Kirito started, raising a hand, "actually, we just-"

"Oh, cool!" Yuuki exclaimed, ignoring Kirito and Asuna's shocked looks. "You sure, though? This was supposed to be your special Guild, right? Your computer club Guild. You sure it's okay if a bunch of outsiders like us joined?"

"Outsiders? Not anymore, you're not," Ducker grinned, the effect somehow enhanced by the fact that his face was dripping with soup. "You were our saviours to begin with, but now, you're part of the family! You can't tell me there isn't some serious chemistry between us right now," he challenged, putting a fist forward. Yuuki bumped it, then did the explosion thing in perfect sync with him. "Heh, see? What did I tell ya."

"Right. So our Guild grows from five to eight, then - if that's quite alright with you two, though?" Keita asked, addressing Kirito and Asuna. Both took a few seconds to gather themselves, but neither objected. "Fantastic. I'm not gonna lie, here, while we do owe you a lot, and enjoy your company on top of it, I have to say I'm more than a bit interested in how strong you all seem to be," he admitted, though if he was embarrassed he hid it well. "If you don't mind my asking, what levels are you? I myself am level 7, same as Ducker and Tetsuo. Sachi's slightly lower at 6, but Sasamaru's our main damage dealer and he's at level 8, almost 9. We've still a long way to go before we can hope to face the mobs here one-on-one, but I'm hoping with your guidance we can get there sooner than we would've otherwise."

"Oh, I'm level 14," Yuuki said around another slice of pie, idly wondering what Kirito was waving his hands around for. "And I'd be glad to help you guys improve. Asuna?"

"I'm level 13," the chestnut-haired girl said. "And I'm more than up for helping as well. What about you, Kirito-kun?"

"Level 13 as well," Kirito sighed, exasperated for some reason. "And, yeah, I'm in as well."

"There you have it, 14, 13, 13," Yuuki summarised brightly. "So I guess we'll be joining your Guild, then. Please take care of us."

"N-no, please take care of _us_!" Keita exclaimed, picking his jaw off the floor. "Wow, f-fourteen...wasn't the requirement the DKB's Guildmaster gave for joining the Guild level 10?"

"Oh, it was, but Lind," another bite of pie (yum, blueberries), "was lowballing it a little. Most clearers from the first boss raid were already level 10 by the then, and most of those are already level 11-12 by now. We're only, what, one or two levels above the mea - median? - the average for the clearing groups," Yuuki shrugged. "That one was mode, wasn't it? But yeah, 10 was selected because it's a nice round number, I'd imagine."

"More likely because it's a serviceable, yet attainable starting level for new clearers, but sure, let's go with that," Kirito corrected. "Is...is our being overleveled in comparison a problem, though? There's a cap, of course, but being around higher-levelled players means an increased chance of spawning higher level mobs. Our presence might make things a bit more dangerous for you guys. Heck, that girl Sasamaru was chasing after," here he ignored the indignant spluttering, "might have been responsible for the «Taurus Scouts» spawning in, what with her likely being higher level."

Wait, was that a thing? Now that she thought about it, even when farming in the same area around Urbus, the mobs seemed to be spawning at higher levels now when compared to when they first arrived at the second floor, so maybe that was a thing that happened. Now that Kirito brought it up, Yuuki couldn't help but feel like maybe she'd made a mistake, but before she could go on regretting her impulsiveness Keita laughed, waving it all off.

"Even if your presence spawns tougher enemies, I doubt it'll make things any more dangerous. On the contrary, with you guys around I don't think I'll ever feel safer," he joked - though it might not have been one. "Maybe I'd feel apprehensive about being exposed to more danger in any other circumstance, but after seeing the way you guys took out those mobs?" He chuckled. "I'll bet even Sachi would gladly take the tougher mobs. Wouldn't you, Sachi?"

Sachi, far from being offended, laughed, and on her face blossomed a beautiful smile. "Yes. I...I'd much rather fight stronger enemies if it meant I'd have you to back me up, Kirito-san, Asuna-san, Yuuki-san," she agreed, leaning forwards. For some reason, Keita yelped, as if someone had stepped on his foot or something. "Please, take care of us too."

"Yosh, then it's settled!" Yuuki exclaimed, slamming her hands on the table and startling a few of them, pushing herself up as her chair scraped noisily back across the floor. "Let's go farming! Or, I dunno, do a quest or something. I'm not picky."

"Now?" Tetsuo asked - the first thing he'd said to her for the whole conversation, actually. He didn't seem opposed to the idea though, just surprised. "Not like I mind, but so soon after you rescuing us…? Surely you'd like a bit more of a break. You were...you looked to be fighting quite hard back there, to say the least."

There was a chorus of mumbled agreements, even from her team - well, she supposed they were all one big team now, but Kirito and Asuna held a special place in her heart - who both looked at her with what they probably thought was concealed concern. It wasn't, not by a long shot, but considering what went down a while ago she didn't think it was unwarranted. That was that, though, and honestly killing monsters or, fighting, at least, had become something of a pastime for Yuuki. If she was honest, it was a good way to release the pent-up feelings she had from that...confrontation, earlier. Whatever they were, anyway - she didn't feel the need nor the desire to peruse them, so she was more than a bit eager to go release those feelings on a monster right about now. Preferably on the edge of her sword.

"Nah, it's fine," she laughed, waving a hand to dispel their worries. "Time is of the essence, after all." Of what, she wasn't sure; it was kind of a weird phrase, but she got the gist of its meaning. "Maybe I could even give you guys a few pointers; y'know, just do a simple demonstration, see if you guys can pick anything up."

"Well, if you say so…" Keita relented, before pinching his fingers together and swiping down, bringing up his invisible menu. "There _is_ this one quest we were struggling with. The reward is something I've had my eye on for a while, too…"

Perfect, Yuuki thought to herself. Ordinarily she might have felt a little bad dragging so many people with her on what amounted to a stress relief session, but if it were part of a quest then, well, they were getting paid for it weren't they? _And here I thought today would be horrible after that little incident, but, well...I've got new friends now. That's a cause for celebration._

Plus, when they saw her in action proper, she could bask in their praise again.

 _Yup. All things considered, this is shaping up to be a pretty fantastic day..._

* * *

"Argh, n-no! G-get awaaaaaaay!"

A scream echoed through the area, bouncing off the walls with diminishing volume, only for a fresh one to take its place, resulting in an unending cacophony. The source of these screams was a little girl, barely out of her teens and scared out of her wits. And who could blame her? Frantically she waved her sword before her, but the weapon did little to ward off the innumerable monsters before her, squeaking and chittering set to make the spine shiver, if they could even be heard that was.

Kirito sighed. This was already shaping up to be a long day.

"H-hey, Kirito!" The girl pleaded between screams. "A l-little help here, please!"

"Calm down, Yuuki," Kirito tried. Another ear-piercing screech told him that she hadn't taken his advice, and he winced. "If you haven't noticed, I'm not exactly just stood here, watching you suffer. There's rats over here too, so if you'd be so kind as to relax, and take apart the mobs on your side like you'd usually do, we can be done with this little encounter in five minutes."

It was the wrong thing to say, evidently, for with the knowledge that there were rats _behind_ her too Yuuki spasmed, and backed up into him with a whimper. He almost tripped, but luckily the «Dire Rat» before him was weak, and perished even when his blow went slightly to the side, scoring a glancing rather than a direct hit. Kirito bit back a grumble, telling himself that it couldn't be helped if his partner was afraid. It was hard, though - especially when she wasn't _afraid_ afraid, at least according to her.

"GAH, get away you dirty...eek!" Yuuki squeaked, shying away from the hissing rat she'd just stabbed. "No! No hissing! Your spittle has germs, probably! Argh, why did it have to be rats? These things are filthy!"

"I feel the need to reiterate that these creatures, life-like as they seem, are virtual. I highly doubt Kayaba programmed the _plague_ into SAO, so you don't have to be afraid of being infected, Yuuki."

"Hah, afraid? Nuh-uh. Not me," Yuuki denied, laughing nervously. "Who'd be afraid of a few measly rats? Not Konno Yuuki, slayer of kobolds and winner of duels, no sir!"

 _Konno…? Oh, so that's her real name,_ Kirito registered. He'd have liked to warn her against just revealing her real name like that, but as another «Dire Rat» leapt at him from what he was certain should have been _Yuuki's_ side, he sighed and arranged his priorities. "Look, Yuuki, there's nothing wrong with being afraid of rats - it's a common fear, or so I'm told, but I'd appreciate it if you were, I don't know, honest about it. Just say the word, and you can sit out. Asuna and I could probably handle these guys on our own, and it might even be _easier_ to do it that way since I won't be caught by surprise when a «Dire Rat» leaps out from your side. Knowing each others' weaknesses is important, so it'd be really great if we could get some transparency here."

"That's true," Yuuki agreed, and Kirito sighed in relief. It didn't last, however. "I'll bear that in mind, when I find some weaknesses I'll need covering for. Because rats are _fine_. But, uh, theoretically, if I _weren't_ so fine around rats, I promise it's the only mob type I'll freak out at. Insects, ghosts, the lot...I'm better with those than I am with rats, to be honest - not that rats are a problem either, of course."

 _Who does she think she's fooling here…?_

Her not-admission aside, Kirito hoped she was telling the truth there. There were more than a few insectoid mobs up on the higher floors, and he didn't know what to do if Yuuki wound up afraid of those too. She was fine with the «Windwasps» in the Creton Forest, though, so maybe it really was just rats she was afraid of.

Either way, scared or not - and it was 'not', apparently - Yuuki was still doing a remarkable job of mowing them down. Perhaps not as efficient as she usually was, and she stumbled into his way one or two times now and then, but whenever a «Dire Rat» got close she screeched, and slashed the thing apart so fast that had her sword lit up he'd have no trouble believing that she was using a sword skill of some kind. When one rat got too close Yuuki even cried out and leapt over it, slashing it to pieces before she even touched the ground, before she found herself in the midst of quite a number of them and promptly dispatched them too, before retreating back to where he and Asuna stood.

 _At least she's still managing an impressive showing,_ Kirito thought, looking towards where Keita and the rest were stood, watching the fight with varying degrees of attention - they were fighting too, after all - and awe. They all winced when Yuuki screamed again, though. _If you muted the scene, that is._

Despite her less than awe-inspiring cries, however, Kirito felt himself mesmerised by her fighting style nonetheless. She fought like a raging whirlwind - always moving, always slashing and stabbing, buffeting her larger opponent from all sides. It was a far cry from the approach he and Asuna, or for that matter most other players, took; that was, to find patterns in the enemy's attacks, to find ways around them, and to strike when the openings presented themselves. It was a slower, more methodical approach, but a tried and tested one - it was, after all, the age-old guiding principle of real-time PvE combat in video games. Parry until the boss stumbles; dodge until there's a gap in their attacks. For video games were meant to be won, after all, and so every mob, every boss would leave itself open in time. It was convention. It was the norm.

And yet Yuuki didn't adhere to any of it - no, rather, it'd be more accurate to say that she didn't allow herself to be constrained by it. She didn't look for openings, she created them, moving and dodging so erratically that she forced her opponents to chase her, and leave themselves unguarded as a result. It was fast-paced, weirdly efficient, and honestly quite the spectacle. But above all, it was just so very _Yuuki_.

 _She moves like she's flying,_ Kirito thought to himself. _So free, and unrestrained. Like a bird - though the way she changes direction so quickly kind of reminds me of a fly. They just can't stay still, so you just can't catch them._

Comparing his partner to an annoying insect, however, was...apt, actually, now that he thought about it (she certainly gravitated towards food, if nothing else), but rubbed him the wrong way. She was more akin to a pixie, a sprite, a fairy - something small and vaguely humanoid that flies, anyway. Kirito often wondered just how she moved like that, as if it were natural. Because it wasn't; he'd tried, but as much as you could watch an avatar do stuff like that in a video game and have it feel natural, to actually perform stunts like that with your own body…? Everyone was bound to have tried at one point, if only to test the limits of what the system allowed them to do, but those were little tests you marvelled at now and then, and not something you just accepted as part of what you could do; they'd all spent all their lives in the real world, after all, where most of them couldn't do half the things they could now. If Kirito had to describe it, it was a similar sensation to that of a trust fall; you might know that your friends will catch you, probably - quite a big 'probably' if Yuuki was the one you were entrusting your landing to - but not-so-trustworthy friends aside, there would always be this screaming urge to _not_ fall flat on your back, that had you bending your body in an attempt to cushion the perceived 'inevitable' fall. Just like that; despite how most knew the system would let them pull off leaps and flips like Yuuki did, there was always a doubt, a hesitation that prevented the motion from being properly performed - which often resulted in System Assist failing to kick in.

The constraints they'd all gotten used to in the real world thus held them all back, somewhat, but with Yuuki it felt like she _never even knew_ there were these constraints in the first place. As if she'd never once moved her body the way everybody else did.

Not for the first time, Kirito wondered what kind of life Yuuki lead in real life that could lead to such a mindset, for lack of a better term. Did she have a background in gymnastics, perhaps?

"Is that all of them, Kirito?" Yuuki asked when they were done, curiously facing Asuna instead. "I don't hear them anymore, but it's, uh, dark. You've got night vision, can you see any more?"

Had she...had she fought with her eyes closed at the end there?

"Nope," he replied, taking an inordinate amount of pleasure in how his partner's cheeks turned crimson as she realised his voice wasn't coming from the direction she was facing. So she _had_ actually flight with her eyes closed...it sounded impressive, and it was, but considering how they were surrounded with mobs basically leaping into their blades, it probably wasn't as hard as one might first assume. Sheepishly, she turned to face him, and managed to keep her face straight for all of three seconds before she burst out laughing.

"Wow, I'm a dunce!" She giggled. "Ugh, stupid rats and their stupid dark caves. And here I was thinking I could look cool in front of my newfound juniors. Why'd the townsfolk hire adventurers to deal with a rat problem, anyway? Not that I'm scared or anything," she was quick to add. "It's just, couldn't they just hire a cat instead? Those hunt rats, and can see in the dark - and they'd be cheaper, I think."

"The flavour text says that the «Dire Rats» were actually discovered through the use of cats, but when it turned out they were as big as they are they were deemed too dangerous and players - sorry, adventurers - were called in." Asuna read, having accepted the quest at the «Town of Beginnings». It wasn't like they'd say no to quest rewards. "So no, I don't think a cat would be much help."

"It _could_ be," Yuuki insisted. "If they hired a Dire Cat."

"I...do those even exist…?"

"Not as far as I'm aware, no," Kirito headed the idea off before his partner actually _tried_ to hire a 'Dire Cat'. Goodness knows she'd find a way to succeed. "Alright, now that _that_ debacle is over, we should head deeper into the dungeon," he raised his voice slightly, to address Keita and his crew. "Sorry for hogging all that experience. That swarm took us a little by surprise, but unless something similar happens again we'll be letting you get more hits in. Better safe than sorry, though, but then again I doubt we'll be finding quite so many mobs after that culling."

"O-oh, yeah," Keita stammered, eyes wide. "Wow, yeah, okay. Gotta admit, I was so mesmerised by the sight of you guys fighting that I kinda forgot what we were even here for," he laughed. "The EXP's just a bonus, though. The real prize is the quest reward at the end."

"What is it, by the way?" Kirito couldn't help but ask. This quest was definitely not in the beta, at least not to his knowledge. It definitely was possible that he'd missed it, however; it only unlocked after the clearing of the first floor, after all, and back in the beta clearing was done at too great a pace for any real backtracking to be done, not if you wanted to keep up. This was especially true for the first few floors, when everybody was excited to explore more and newer biomes unlocked with each floor. The discovery of quests and secrets had only really come about after clearing stagnated around the 20th floor, and beta testers only properly consolidated their knowledge on the forums after the beta testing period had ended. Only a select few, like Argo, had even bothered looking for more than what was presented to them at face value.

"It's a secret," Keita smiled enigmatically, prompting groans from the other four of their new soon-to-be guildmates - even Sachi. "Oh, come on. The surprise will be worth it, trust me. Besides, if you lot really wanted to know then you could've contributed a bit to the amount I had to pay that info broker."

"Hey, you were the one who said we'd be tackling harder content," Sasamaru defended. "I thought spending my hard-earned col on equipment was a good use of it in lieu of that. Plus, that broker you paid was _expensive._ "

"Yeah, well, reliable info doesn't come cheap, not when people risk their lives to get that info," Keita argued in turn. It sounded an awful lot like what Argo would say, actually - and while true, he personally knew for a fact that she used that justification for any piece of info people thought she charged too much for, even if it wasn't really obtained through any dangerous means. He knew this because _he_ had once sold info to Argo, only to hear it whispered back to him by another player, who told him it hadn't come cheap. That was back during the beta, though...back before information could mean the difference between life and death. Now, Argo was writing and distributing players' guides for free, so he could safely put his acquaintance on the right side of the morality scale there.

So if this piece of info had been expensive, even with that...well, that meant it was something big alright, but also something the info broker had deemed unnecessary for survival. Not equipment, then; alongside stats and experience, equipment played the largest role in ensuring the survival of a player. With that ruled out, however, the possible rewards were cut clean in half. More, if you considered what might be quite so sought after.

 _What could it be, though? It can't just be col either...maybe it's a rare consumable item with special effects?_

"As long as this 'surprise reward' doesn't turn out to be 'the friends we made along the way', I'm cool," Sasamaru laughed. "If it _is_ , though, you're barred from saying my hat is stupid ever again."

"It _is_ stupid, though."

"Nobody asked you, Ducker!"

Kirito hid a small smile at the byplay. It was rather entertaining, actually, to watch their banter from the sidelines. Whenever there was banter in their little group it'd always been between him and Yuuki, but he'd been hard-pressed to find the entertainment value there since more often than not, the entertainment _was_ him.

 _This is refreshing, I'll admit._ He smiled. _This whole 'guild' arrangement is growing on me._

It wasn't as if he were ever _opposed_ to joining the group, of course, but he'd be lying if he said he'd even thought about joining a guild during their time in Aincrad. It was different with the clearing guilds; those would be big, and really just an organisation to clear with, and report to occasionally. A guild like this, where they travelled and fought together on a regular basis? That, he'd never considered. Then again, he'd never considered travelling with anyone at all, having found playing solo much more efficient in the beta, but here he was now. _Thanks for that, Yuuki._

And speaking of his partner…

"I'm telling you, it wasn't an insult!" Yuuki insisted. "I think your hat's cool _because_ it looks like a pie. Trust me!"

"I believe you!" Sasamaru cried. "I think. Either way, as much as I appreciate the sentiment, I'm still offended! What kind of clown goes around wearing a pie on their head!?"

"Well, you do... which makes you the coolest damn clown I've ever seen, though?"

Sasamaru didn't look comforted by that, but knowing Yuuki she truly did think 'your hat looks like pie' was high praise, in whatever strange, Yuuki-language she spoke. The sincerity in her words gave Sasamaru some pause as he visibly tried to puzzle out whether she was being sarcastic or not, but before he could figure it out - from experience, that could take a while - Kirito shifted his attention back to Yuuki. She was smiling. Laughing, even, at Sasamaru's expense, even as she slapped him on the back, apologising lightly for the perceived slight. She was enjoying herself, that much was clear. She was happy.

She was...

Not the quiet, silently shaking Yuuki from a few hours earlier.

 _We've been over this, Kazuto_ , he berated himself. _Just because Yuuki's mood changes quickly doesn't mean she's not really recovering. She might not be as over what happened as she seems, but that doesn't mean it's not getting better. The banter...the guild is probably helping her on that front. Heck, the additional company's probably why she was so quick to join the guild in the first place._

Considering what caused her peculiar mood in the first place, it was ironic that joining a guild turned out to be her chosen solution. It pulled the rug out from under him, as it did Asuna, for sure, but thinking about it Yuuki _had_ only taken issue with the 'clearing' part of clearing guild. For all he knew, this was the exact kind of guild she had wanted to join instead.

Still, he couldn't help but think Yuuki's mood swings were a little drastic. One moment she was quiet and - dare he say it - contemplative, and the next she was rushing off into combat...and then a bit after that, she was back to her regular self. He'd never say it out loud, but he had a slight suspicion that these might just be the fabled mood swings that members of the fairer sex supposedly got from time to time.

Irritatingly enough, he hadn't interacted with the opposite gender quite enough to have any real basis for comparison.

 _She's fine now, though. If anyone can bounce back like that, it's Yuuki. Surely I can just count my blessings that she's back to normal now?_

Maybe...but all the same, it couldn't hurt to talk to her about it. Or, well, it could - it'd probably ruin her good mood, after all, so it wasn't like there wasn't _any_ harm to be done. Was this even something that needed to be intruded upon?

…

"Yuuki," he began, "about just now - "

"Oh, look, a «Dire Rat»," somebody said.

"Kyaaa!?"

Whatever he was about to say - what that was, even he wasn't sure - was lost as Yuuki, quite predictably, freaked out as a «Greater Dire Rat» - easily confused for its lesser brethren, given how they were really just larger «Dire Rats» - crawled out from the shadows.

"I-I-I mean, hiyah!" She corrected, flicking her sword out to point at the mob. It was a valiant effort to save it, but as her 'kya!' from before bounced off the walls and echoed throughout the area, Yuuki's face slowly turned beet red, the effect obvious even in the darkness. "Okay, I admit it, I don't like rats!" She finally wailed. "They're just, so bad! Their filthy fur, their stupid naked tails - why the heck are their tails like that, anyway!? - and the _diseases_ , ugh! Weren't rats single-handedly responsible for the deadliest plague in human history, or something?"

" _The_ plague, yes. Also called the Black Death," Asuna supplied. "As sadistic as the man is, I highly doubt Kayaba programmed the _plague_ of all things into SAO, though."

Kirito had to refrain from arguing that Kayaba wasn't a sadist; he wasn't a man who took joy from the pain of others, but rather someone who was dreadfully unconcerned about it, as far as his memoirs and interviews painted him. But that was a point of contention he didn't badly feel the need to defend, so he addressed Yuuki instead. "If it helps, the rats themselves never carried the black death. It's commonly accepted that it was the fleas on their bodies, which I highly doubt are present here."

"Ugh, yeah, I know," Yuuki grimaced. "All the same, fears cultivated from childhood tend to stick with you, as irrational as they are when you grow up. Young-me was afraid of contracting the plague," she laughed. "And I guess now-me hadn't fully gotten over it. Sorry about that."

 _Don't apologise for something like that, damn it,_ Kirito groaned in his head. _Now I can't use this to get back at you for all the teasing._ His prepared snark now suddenly lacking ammunition, Kirito was left waving her apology off instead.

"This one looks bigger than the others, though," Asuna pointed out. Sharp as always. "Do you think it's the flag mob we're looking for?"

The question was addressed to him, but before he could answer the rat did it for him, letting loose a loud squeak that could have passed for a high-pitched roar. It padded slightly closer to them, and into attack range - and as it did, it's cursor came into view, the words «Mors, the Sewer King» appearing in the air above it. .

"Is that...a boss monster?" Sachi asked, her voice hesitant and unsure.

"No," Kirito answered, to which there were several sighs of relief. "It's just a named mob. They're stronger than your average monster for sure, but are still nowhere near the threat level of a boss monster. Named mobs usually require 2-3 players to take down, but with my level I'd say I could kill it fairly easily."

Saying this, he stepped forward, shaking his head to decline Asuna's offer of support. He wouldn't need it - and honestly, he kind of didn't want it. As interspersed with screaming as it was, Yuuki's performance against the swarm of regular «Dire Rats» earlier had impressed their new guildmates, and as much as he usually hated being the center of attention Kirito felt like showing off once in a while wasn't so bad. Slowly and deliberately, Kirito reached behind him, grasping the hilt of his «Anneal Blade» and drawing it out of its sheath.

It only got halfway when a hand landed on his shoulder.

"Appreciate the thought, but you guys've already done a lot," Sasamaru grinned. "It's big, but there's only one of it; besides, didn't you say you'd let us get our hits in? Let us handle this."

"Hah, spoken like a true hero," Ducker elbowed his friend, before stage-whispering. "Just between you and me, he's just not used to _not_ being the carry of the team. He probably feels like he needs to prove himself, or something."

"I can hear you, you know," Sasamaru glared, but didn't refute the claims. "And draw your weapon. You'll need the EXP if you're even gonna catch up to me."

"You're one measly level ahead, man. Don't let it get to your head."

"It'll be two, soon enough, and the gap only gets wider."

"Save it, you two," Keita cut in. "But yes, draw your weapons. I think it's about time we show them what we're made of."

"You mean the rat, or the clearers?" someone felt the need to ask. "Because, like, there's only one rat."

"I'm referring to all of them, dimwit. We can't very well show only _one_ party what we're made of when both will be watching us. Tetsuo, to the front. We're taking this guy down."

 _I guess I don't get a say in this,_ Kirito thought, stood there with a half-drawn sword and a stiff smile on his face. _It's okay. It's not like I wanted to show off once in a while, anyway..._

To his horror, both Yuuki _and_ Asuna pat him on the back sympathetically.

The next few minutes were spent observing the ensuing battle, which, while not overly tense, certainly didn't quite see the five players breezing through the mob. To be fair, they _were_ playing it cautious; despite noticeable attempts to emulate Yuuki's style being made, the group overall played defensive, waiting for «Mors, the Sewer King» to target and strike at Tetsuo before the rest of them made their moves. All things considered, though, it was an impressive display of teamwork - and the individual members weren't half bad themselves, just more than a bit underleveled.

Tetsuo was a marvelous tank, keeping his own aggro up by striking frequently with his mace but never overextending, and always with his shield at the ready to block incoming blows. The way he switched between offense and defence was impressive, but Kirito couldn't help but feel like he would struggle against faster enemies. His approach was slow and methodical, and while it held up here against «Mors, the Sewer King», it was bound to crumble in the face of swifter mobs, especially the ones that spawned in large packs, like the swarm of regular «Dire Rats» earlier, or the wolf-type «Snarling Lupines» he and Yuuki had faced while questing for her «Onyx Slasher». As it was now, however, Tetsuo was keeping up just fine.

Sasamaru was fairly proficient with his spear, and his higher level among his comrades certainly showed in the aggressive way he fought. He was quick on his feet and had good form when thrusting his weapon, but having seen Zest and Valkyrie fight Kirito could only peg Sasamaru as 'decent'. If anything, his attacks were too choreographed, which more intelligent mobs on higher floors - the elves came to mind - would surely exploit. His use of sword skills were well-timed, but he always paused in attacking to activate them, stepping back to allow his weapon to flare up before dashing back in to deliver the blow. Not necessarily a bad thing, to back out of range like that, but when most of the enemies' attention was already fully occupied by Tetsuo and Keita his retreating was unnecessary. Then again, maybe it was done in consideration for the two tanks, who might have found it difficult to keep the aggro on them when there were so many striking the same mob.

Ducker was impressive, if only from how he worked around Sasamaru. With the spear-user as the main damage dealer and most aggressive attacker, Ducker was left having to strike wherever Sasamaru wasn't, which was a task easier said than done given the limited space the corridor they had to work with in the dungeon corridor. Even still, he managed to attack while moving around, much like how a rogue class character would in any other MMO. SAO didn't _have_ classes per se, but it wasn't like people who liked playing as thieves couldn't find a build for it. As it was, Ducker moved quick, wielded his dagger with sufficient skill, and whenever the occasion arose he dodged well, too. He was good, that much was certain.

Keita was...fine. Kirito winced at the thought, but really, he didn't know what else to say - he wasn't _bad_ by any means, but his weapon of choice was a two-handed staff, which Kirito could honestly say he never saw outside the beta. He really couldn't tell if the way he used it was right or not, but if nothing else he did an admirable job of an off-tank. Whenever aggro slipped off of Tetsuo he was quick to activate a skill to draw it towards him and away from the other members of their team, and when relieved of his ranking duties he...struck. Whether he struck hard and fast or slow and sloppily, Kirito really had no idea, but being in both tanking and damage dealing positions was a god spot for a leader - as Keita quite obviously was to the group - to be in. That way, he could grasp the needs of his party more easily, though at the moment no real strategy was needed beyond 'group up, and hit it till it dies'.

The last member of their guild, however…

Sachi stood on the outskirts, not a bad move with all her other groupmates crowding around their single target, but she stood notably farther than she really needed to be. She saw openings when they presented themselves, that much was clear, but her steps were hesitant and her movement too slow, and more often than not she edged forward, spear hefted, only to step back again as the opportunity that presented itself passed. On the rare occasion that she _did_ get a hit in, Kirito had to hide his winces at the shallow wounds she gave the mob, sometimes barely even grazing it and consequently it's health bar at all. Kirito held some hope that this was really only due to the overcrowding, and come a second «Greater Dire Rat», this time a regular one (not that it freaked Yuuki out any less), he was proven right on his assumption. With Keita ordering a split of the group, Sachi found herself facing off against a new enemy, and with more space to work with she could actually fight as opposed to contribute poke damage. Even still, her form was awkward, and really the only time she did anything other than thrust her spear directly forwards was when light consumed her weapon, and the system took over. She wasn't very good at disengaging either, and at the end of every post-skill pause she shuffled back into her former position, instead of bracing herself and moving from the pause position like most players did.

The biggest problem reared its head, however, when Keita failed to keep the aggro on himself now that Tetsuo was off dealing with another mob, and the «Greater Dire Rat» instead turned its sights on Ducker, snarking and swinging it's entire body in a wide, choreographed, circle. Ducker dodged, as he had proven himself adept at; but so large was the swing that another target was caught up in its radius.

Sachi.

The girl screamed, and with outstretched arms held her spear before her just in time to clumsily catch the rat's snout, which, given the size of the rat, might as well have been the snout of a large bull. The impact was heavy and jarring, and with a clang the «Greater Dire Rat» moved Sachi a little bit off the ground, carrying her a little way before it's head glanced off, and Sachi was sent sprawling to the floor. She kept a tight hold on her weapon, so thankfully she wasn't disarmed. Not that it did much good, though, when the «Greater Dire Rat» turned its attention fully to her, hackles raised in preparation to pounce.

It never came, as a purple arc of light cut its way through the mob, prompting a pained squeak and a cancellation of its attack animation as Yuuki danced in, spinning and shearing straight through the large rat, leaving it with a glowing red gash diagonally across its back before it exploded into polygons. «Mors, the Sewer King» didn't take kindly to the loss of its supposed subject, and did what he imagined to be a rat's version of a snarl - before it too was cruelly torn into by Sasamaru, who took the chance for what it was worth and impaled the thing with what Kirito recognised to be the skill «Decisive Thrust». The Sewer King screeched and tried to swipe at the boy, only to explode into polygons when Tetsuo followed up with a «Heavy Bash».

"You okay?" Yuuki asked the fallen girl, who took a second to look up at her in shock before nodding nervously. Sachi accepted her outstretched hand, and with more strength than belied her small frame Yuuki pulled the taller, and likely older girl up.

"Are you alright?" Kirito asked, he'd admit rather needlessly, as he jogged up. He'd reacted to Sachi's predicament, of course, as had Asuna; by the time they'd drawn their swords, however, Yuuki had already fired off a «Slashwave», and then chased after it.

"Oh, um, I'm fine," Sachi answered, and beyond looking a little winded she appeared to be telling the truth. "I was just...caught off-guard."

"That you were," Asuna agreed, though there was no condemnation in her voice. "But you did well to hold onto your weapon, and if nothing else you reacted quickly to block the attack."

Left unsaid was the needlessness of such a block; like before, Sachi had been stood somewhere on the outskirts, and though she went in closer than before while attacking she'd been nearly out of range when the rat had attacked, and could have easily just hopped a few steps back. Instead, she stuck her spear out like a shield, which gave the mob a solid hit, despite it not being on her body.

He wanted to point out as much, but just because he was antisocial didn't mean he couldn't read the mood.

"It was a beginner's mistake," Kirito shrugged instead, "and nothing that can't be ironed out in time. You just need more experience, is all."

Sachi bit her lip, but nodded.

"Damn, these rewards ain't half bad!" Sasamaru whistled appreciatively, staring at a space in the air that must have been his drops screen. "Ugh, no items, though. Hey Tetsuo, you got the last hit - did you get anything?"

"Yes…?" Tetsuo replied. "I'm not sure what it is, though. It doesn't look like equipment, or a consumable…"

 _That_ caught some attention, or more specifically, Keita's. Stopping in his fussing over Sachi (much to the girl's relief), he moved over to Tetsuo in long, brisk strides, unable to keep the grin off of his face. "Mind making that screen visible, Tetsuo? I got a feeling that this is what we were looking for."

The mace-user obliged, and with a few taps on his invisible interface, the drop menu materialised in the air, which Keita wasted no time in looking over. In about two seconds, his grin grew wider - and finally unable to hold back his curiosity, Kirito walked over, though his progress was hampered somewhat by Ducker and Yuuki both shoving their way past him to satisfy their own curiosity.

"Hah, the Rat was right!" Keita exclaimed, to the confusion of everybody but Kirito. So, Argo _had_ been his vaunted informant.

"Enough stalling already," Sasamaru growled, fighting to see over Keita's shoulder. "Tell us what it is already!"

"It'll be none of your business till tomorrow morning if you keep pushing," Keita threatened. There was no heat in it, though, as his grin was as wide as ever. "But if you _must_ know, it's this."

Holding his hand out in the air, Keita nodded his thanks to Tetsuo as the latter rolled his eyes, and materialised the item to indulge the corner's dramatics. What Keita held in his hand was a small piece of torn and yellowed parchment, with text too tiny to read scrawled over it, though Kirito would wager it was either scribbles, gibberish, or the Lorem Ipsum - so all the same thing, really.

"And this is…?" Ducker prompted when Keita didn't elaborate any further. "It's probably something good if that's your reaction to it, but all I see is a dirty piece of paper."

"It's that, alright, but also so much more," Keita somehow grinned even further, though after receiving looks from everyone - even Sachi - he decided not to play coy any further. " This is the «Lost Letter» - or rather, it will be, once we have it identified, and collect the rest of the pieces. After we turn the quest in, this item will unlock us a new quest chain - one that will see the item completed at the end of it. And when that happens…" he paused for dramatic effect, "we'll have ourselves a 50% discount on any one property we want to buy."

Kirito's heart beat once.

"Say _ **WHAT!?**_ " Yuuki screeched, snatching the item from Keita's hands. "Eww, it's all wrinkly and stuff - uh, I mean, property? Really!?"

"According to Argo the Rat, yes," Keita confirmed proudly, prompting an "oh, so Argo has a nickname" from Yuuki. "Fair warning, it's quite a long quest chain, and with how expensive property is - and here I thought games were for _escaping_ reality - we're still going to have to scrounge up quite a bit of money. But we do it all, and our guild is going to have itself its own headquarters."

"I want a castle," Ducker stated. "No, wait, a mansion!"

"Isn't that a step down…?"

"It's _smaller_ , sure, but size doesn't matter - it's what you do with it. And a mansion is more homey, don't you think?"

"Cheaper, too," Yuuki murmured.

"Gotta say, your surprise did not disappoint," Sasamaru laughed, slapping Keita on the back. "Man, a headquarters, huh? No, a house...to call our own. That's the dream, really."

"I got kinda tired of sleeping in inns all the time," Keita admitted. "And thanks. Does this mean I still get to call your hat stupid?"

Sasamaru laughed, and slapped Keita's back again. Hard.

Ducker grinned. "It _is_ stupid, though!"

"Screw off, man. You're just jealous cuz your beanie makes you look like a hippie."

"A house, huh…" Sachi murmured, a small smile tugging on her lips. "That...that sounds nice. Very nice…"

"I must admit, the idea of owning a property had failed to cross my mind," Asuna tried not to beam, "but I do find the idea somewhat appealing. Do you think we could get one with a nice bath…?"

"I won't settle for anything less," Keita grinned, and Asuna seemed to preen happily. "Either way, it's our guild goal, for now. It's still pretty far away, to be honest, but this is our first step - the most important step."

Unwittingly echoing Diavel's words from the Illfang boss raid, Keita handed the item back to Tetsuo, who dematerialised it into his inventory. "And to commemorate this most momentous occasion, I have decided on a name for our guild," he continued, causing everyone to go silent in anticipation. "As our guild will be properly created today, I thought it would be apt to have our first mission together serve as inspiration for our name. Henceforth, we shall be known as: the Moonlit Black Cats."

There were some groans at the addition of 'Moonlit', and some laughter at the reference to then bunting vermin, but no one really objected their soon-to-be guild leader's decision. Kirito himself thought it was a fine name; it would call back to a shared experience they all had together, and had a certain ring to it.

Business there attended to, the group of eight headed back out the dungeon, intent on claiming their further quest rewards, and starting the quest chain that would ultimately buy them a residence. As they did, however, Kirito stopped short, as he noticed that somebody wasn't quite following them.

"Yuuki?" He called, "what're you doing? You're gonna get left behind."

His partner didn't answer for a second, and all of a sudden Kirito's good cheer vanished, his worry from earlier creeping back into his mind as gracefully as «Mors, the Sewer King» had crept up to them. Which was to say, it took two steps into the light and roared to announce its presence. "Yuuki?" He called again.

"Ne, Kirito," she answered this time, though her voice was shaky, and tinged with fear. "Do you…"

She turned, and he was shocked by the expression she had on her face. It was dark. Haunted.

"Do you think," she choked, "do you think with a name like that, our guild's gonna be hunting even more rats?"

* * *

 **I had you in the first half, don't lie.**

 **Yeah, it's come to my attention (or rather, it's been on my mind for a while now) that most of the latest chapters have been heavy ones, which is, well, not good, not bad, just a thing - but it's not what I wanna do, at least not at this point in the story.**

 **I'll try to get the next chapter out as soon as possible, but it isn't at all written yet and as always I only have a skeleton plan, but hey, this chapter was kinda me winging it at first, and though I had to rewrite so it's not me** _ **completely**_ **winging it I think this one turned out okay despite that. That was kind of a confusing sentence, lol...but anyway, I actually have something of a schedule I** _ **hope**_ **to adhere to, in that there's on particular chapter I want to post on one particular day...but, eh, I'm going on a short holiday starting tomorrow** **, and since December had started I told myself I'd start on homework, so I really don't think I can make it in time. Bummer. But hey, maybe if I can just get into the groove, and maybe possibly not spend all my time on Reddit and YouTube, I could actually get it done. I can't say more without giving anything away, though you guys seem pretty sharp so maybe you already know what I'm talking about, lol. For those of you who don't, uh, sorry? But it's for the best, believe me.**

 **Well, that's all from me now. I feel like I kinda wanna address some things I read in the reviews, but I like to keep my cards close to the chest, if you know what I'm saying...and uh, I primarily write and read fanfiction on mobile, so I can't seem to find a way to PM any of you guys while on this platform, lol.**

 **Leave a review! I read them all, of course, and my ego gets boosted every time I do. Hey, don't stop.**

 **~Ace**


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